

Gass . ’ 

Book T R 4-1 € 


Copyright N? 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



9 








9 


























s 





» 

























Rev. J. W. Richardson 




Strong Delusions 

“ The Light Turned On ” 


y " by 

rev. J. w. Richardson 

GLENWOOD, N. C. 







PUBLISHED :: BY :: THE :: AUTHOR 









€ r 

I t ' 





















©CI.A357766 

*-0 ( 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Chapter I. Elder J. C. Rowe’s Sermon 5 

Chapter II. The Home Herald on the Truth of Abraham 
and Sarah 12 

Chapter III. Rev. Mr. Stowe and Mr. Ratledge on the 
Same Line of Thought 17 

Chapter IV. Bishop Morrison’s Sermon on Consecration, 

and What He Said 20 

Chapter V. Mr. Bowles and the Creation of Our Fore- 
parents in Eternity 22 

Chapter VI. Mr. V. A. Sharpe on the Foreknowledge of 
God 25 

Chapter VII. Mr. E. K. McLarty on the Deadness of 
the Law 27 

Chapter VIII. Mr. L. S. Chaffer’s Sermon on the Devil’s 
Rights and Possession 29 

Chapter IX. Rev. Geo. D. Hermon’s Sermon — He Says 

the Devil Can Inspire Men 45 

Chapter X. The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus — 
Comments by the New York and North Carolina 
Christian Advocates 50 

Chapter XI. The Church of 1912 — Some Notes on Its 
Policy of Self-rule 79 

Chapter XII. Jacob’s Wickedness — Notes on a Sermon 
by Mr. Booth 86 

Chapter XIII. Sermon by Mr. Detwiler — The Kingdom 
of Christ Dominating All Others 124 

Chapter XIV. From Eden to Eden — Extracts from a Ser- 
mon by Mr. Waggener 144 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter XV. The Origin of Sin — The New York Chris- 
tian Advocate's Comments 160 

Chapter XVI. God’s Instructors — Sentiment of the Lead- 
ers of the Churches 183 

Chapter XVII. Leading Thoughts of the Bible 189 

Chapter XVIII. The Spirits 208 

Chapter XIX. God’s Kingdom Here Upon Earth 218 

Chapter XX. The Judgment — Reference to the Proph- 
ecies 251 

Chapter XXI. Prayer 259 

Chapter XXII. Faces Turned Away Back and Hazing. . 277 


i 


PREFACE, OR INTRODUCTION 


The sole object, in writing this book, is to set 
forth the law of God; concerning all deceivable- 
ness of unrighteousness in them that perish; be- 
cause they received not the love of the truth, that 
they might be saved. And for this cause is sending 
strong delusion upon them in high places ; that they 
should believe a lie : That they all might be damned 
who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in un- 
righteousness. Practicing all sorts of deception, 
and amusement, in preference to the true worship 
of God. And also the abomination of desolation, 
spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the 
Holy place, so we may understand, that the day is 
drawing nigh. And for a signet, and a warning, 
for all who are so fortunate as to obtain a copy of 
this book, and read the contents. Further, to make 
oare the truth, and show by comparison, so that 
chose who want to know the truth, may have better 
access in finding the light. 














. 





























































































































































































































































Strong Delusions 


5 


CHAPTER I. 

Rev. J. C. Rowe’s Sermon. 

When we look around us, and take into consid- 
eration the human family at large, and see such 
diversity of gift and talent, we can not avoid full 
appreciation of the noble and the great. But many 
times we see the most imperfection in some of the 
greatest minds we come in contact with. Especially 
so in the divine law. For instance we will take 
Mr. J. C. Rowe, the pastor of West Market Street 
M. E. Church at Greensboro, N. C. On the first 
Sunday in February of the last year he served, 
when lie preached on the subject of “The Beginning 
of Time”; when he referred to the beginning he 
said that if we could comprehend millions, and mil- 
lions, and emphasized millions of years; with all 
the force that he could exert apparently; that we 
could tell something about when time began; and 
said in connection with this statement that “the 
two first verses of the Bible were disconnected with 
any of the Bible.” Now we want to compare these 
statements with the word of God. He says in the 
beginning God made the heavens and the earth, and 
all that in them are, and names what he made each 
day; and finished all that he created and made in 
six days, and rested from his work on the seventh 
day. Furthermore, this record of the creation was 
written about twenty-six hundred years after God 
made them ; and God gave the word to Moses, and 
he wrote these words, as they were given to him. 
Now we believe that God the Father gave those 
words just as they transpired; and if we say that 
it was any other way than given by the Prophet 
Moses, we are contradicting the word of our 


6 


Strong Delusions 


Maker, and do say that He lied. But I say, let God 
be true, and all men liars. Then as to the discon- 
necting, (the same as to take from His word), and 
if any one takes from His word he will take his part 
away out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy 
City, and from the things which are written in this 
book. And again, if we disconnect these two verses 
from the Bible, it would begin to read thus : “And 
God said, Let there be light, and there was light, 
and he had no place prepared to put the light.” So 
you see that it would have been in very awkward 
shape. No one that believes the Bible believes any 
such stuff. Mr. Rowe tried to prove by the build- 
ing of West Market Street Church that his theory 
was right; and said that the Church was not com- 
menced being built when the corner stone was laid 
and the ceremony said over it; but the people had 
been thinking about the erecting of the house for 
years, and rolling it over and over in their minds, 
and it was begun away back there somewhere. Now 
let us investigate a little. I ask if a man or a num- 
ber of men can not talk about building a house all 
of their lives, and not begin? Not even locate the 
place. I ask again can not they go so far as to do 
all the planning, and have the architect to draw the 
plans, and then not have commenced to build? Or, 
they might have laid the foundation stone, and stop 
and then, never build. And further, all the ma- 
terial might be put down and be made ready, and 
yet the building is only ready to be built. When 
the foundation is laid, and the material cut, and 
fitted for to put together, then we begin to build by 
putting piece upon piece, until we are done. Let 
us compare it to the Kingdom and see if we are 
right. All the prophets spake of the coming of 


Strong Delusions 


7 


Jesus and told the time; even the forerunner came 
to prepare the way. Now, did all that set the King- 
dom up? No; not until Jesus came and began his 
work. Of course not. Then, if God was in exist- 
ence from everlasting; that is not the least shadow 
of reason that time was back there, Millions and 
Billions of years. There is nothing revealed of 
time being in existence before the fall of man, and 
we have no idea of anything but eternity, previous 
to the fall. Time began with the fall of man ; man 
was made in eternity, and fell out of eternity into 
time, and is just given time enough to make prep- 
arations to go back into eternity. God being so 
good as to allow man this chance, furthermore 
making redemption for him; redeeming him from 
the fall. And Mr. Rowe, neither any other man, 
has any right to refer to any such an idea or make 
any such an erroneous and unjustifiable statement. 
Further, no man has the least business with any- 
thing pertaining to God that is not revealed, for He 
says that those things belong to him. The bad 
part, for worse, is the effect such preaching has 
over the lay members, or subordinates, of these 
leaders. As Mr. Wyche and I returned home, I 
asked him, he being one of the leading members of 
the West Market Street Church, how he liked the 
sermon. He answered, “Fine; very fine.” I ex- 
claimed, “A very fine oration ; but, if Mr. Rowe was 
to meet with an infidel, what do you think he would 
say, when this same doctrine is one of his strong 
points?” It seemed that he was surprised, and I 
continued, that Mr. Rowe, would say, “I think you 
are about right ; for that is just what I preach and 
believe.” The whole truth summed up in a nut- 
shell is that Mr. Rowe was deluded, the worst kind, 


8 


Strong Delusions 


that day, and every one that believed his sermon 
was deluded through him. Then on another day in 
the home department of the Sunday School, when 
Mr. Claxton was Superintendent, he asked some one 
to make a talk after we had gone over the lesson, 
and Mr. Rowe arose, and said “I have nothing to 
say I believe.” But he went into a lengthy discus- 
sion of the boy Jesus. And the Elder said “ Jesus 
was just like any other boy except he was without 
sin. And he had to be taught and studied books.” 
And the tenor of his discourse was in all the de- 
tails of his life; was reared in the same manner of 
all the boys of that day and age. He did not refer 
to the wisdom that he displayed at Jerusalem with 
the lawyers and rulers of the synagogue. Which 
does show plainly to the contrary of His teaching 
that day. “And the Jews marveled, saying, How 
knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 
“And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, 
that even such mighty works are wrought by his 
hands?” If we look at Jesus just in the light of 
Mr. Rowe’s expression of his being without sin, I 
would suggest that this alone would be a vast dif- 
ference. And to look further, he was very God, and 
very man — his being God himself, and the creator 
of all things, even the maker of us all; certainly, 
His is a wonderful difference. Then, he was the 
Son of God the Father, and could any one afford to 
say that he was just like any other boy? So it is 
written, the first man, Adam, was made a living 
soul ; the last Adam was a quickening spirit. How- 
beit that was not first which is spiritual, but that 
which was natural ; and afterward that which was 
spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the 
second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the 


Strong Delusions 


9 


earthy such are they also that are earthy, and as 
is the heavenly, such are they also that are heav- 
enly. And as we have borne the image of the 
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heav- 
enly. The above certainly is a wonderful differ- 
ence from other boys. Then after he was baptized 
he said, “The man Jesus went into the wilderness 
to be tempted of the Devil, but he said, “I don’t 
believe that Jesus could see the Devil any more 
than I can, and I can’t see him ; and he said within 
himself, when he was an hungered, that ‘If I be the 
Son of God that I could command this stone to be 
made bread, and it would obey; but this would 
separate me from the favor of the Father, and I 
can’t do that.’ Then he went into the city and 
climbed upon the pinnacle of the temple and took 
a bird’s-eye view of the great city and said within 
himself, ‘If I be the Son of God, I could cast myself 
down, and God would give His Angels charge, con- 
cerning me and they would bear me up in their 
hands; but that would separate me from the favor 
of my Father; therefore, I can not do it.’ Lastly, 
he went up on an exceeding high mountain, took a 
general view of all the kingdoms of this world, and 
said, ‘What a glorious king I could be, and such 
kingdoms of splendor as I could have; but this 
would separate me from the favor of my Father, so 
I can not do this either.’ ” His whole idea was that 
the whole of Jesus’ temptations were within him- 
self, leaving Satan out of the entire course of the 
whole series of his trials. Mr. Rowe would have 
led his hearers to believe that there is no Devil, and 
that Jesus was filled with evil spirits, and we, in 
like manner, are possessed with evil spirits that 
tempt us to do all kinds of sin. 


10 


Strong Delusions 


When we read God’s word the difference is so 
obvious that any intelligent person w T ould say that 
Mr. Rowe’s comment is a perfect contradiction of 
God’s word; and further, for a man that has at- 
tained the high position of Elder in the church to 
be misled, in such erroneous misapprehensions does 
vast harm to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was 
driven of the Spirit into the wilderness to be 
tempted of the Devil, and was with the wild beasts 
of the forest for forty days; and after he was an 
hungered the Devil came to him and said unto him, 
“If thou be the Son of God command these stones 
that they be made bread.” And Jesus replied unto 
him and said, “Man does not live by bread alone, 
but by every word of God.” And the controversy 
continued throughout all three temptations, show- 
ing that there were two distinct persons engaged 
in the whole circumstance. 

“Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy 
City, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 
and saith unto him, ‘If thou be the Son of God cast 
thyself down: for it is written ‘He shall give his 
Angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands 
they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash 
thy foot against a stone’.” I will say just here that 
the Devil transformed this text by leaving out the 
words “in all thy ways,” showing his subtlety in 
the temptation, this not being one of our Saviour’s 
ways. In like manner he transforms much of the 
Scriptures when he presents them to us, so we had 
better search the Scriptures, “for in them ye think 
ye have eternal life.” Jesus said unto him, “It is 
written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy 
God.” Again, “The Devil taketh him up into an 
exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the 


Strong Delusions 


11 


kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; And 
saitli unto him, ‘All these things will I give unto 
thee if thou wilth fall down and worship me.’ Then 
saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan : for it 
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and him only shalt thou serve.’ Then the Devil 
leaveth him, and behold, angels came and minis- 
tered unto him.” 

These temptations seemed to consist, in the 
shameless contempt and the bold attack made on 
the Master, with wanting modesty, and full of 
sauciness as though Satan were supreme and all 
belonged to him. Actually he possesses nothing but 
a cursed name — cursed above all cattle of the field 
and over all the beasts of the forest. This old 
Devil — Satan — could not have left Jesus if he had 
not been there in the temptation. Any one who be- 
lieves God’s word, who will read and see what He 
says can see that Mr. Eowe is wrong, and radically 
wrong ; and what I have to say is that he had better 
get right, and all others with him. 


12 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER II. 

The Home Herald on the Truth of Abraham 
and Sarah. 

The Home Herald , one of the most widely read 
and distinguished among all the religious periodi- 
cals published in America, in sending out the les- 
sons for the Home Class Study, refers to one of the 
first lessons of the Bible, which contained the story 
of the visit of Abraham with his wife, into Egypt. 
While they were on their way, Abraham, being a 
Holy Prophet of God, said to his wife when they 
were near entering into Egypt, “ Behold now. I 
know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. 
Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the Egyp- 
tians shall see thee that they shall say, This is his 
wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee 
alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister : that it 
may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul 
shall live because of thee. And this prophecy came 
to pass as Abraham said; that when they came 
unto Egypt that the Egyptians beheld the woman 
that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh 
saw her and commended her before Pharaoh, and 
they took the woman into Pharaoh’s house.” So 
you see they proved to a certainty that Abraham 
was right in his saying, or, in other words, he was 
forewarned of God, so God suffered him no hurt, 
and the king of Egypt treated Abraham well for 
her sake, and gave him largely of his substance. 
But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and all his house 
with great plagues because he took Sarah, Abra- 
ham’s wife. Then Pharaoh called Abraham and 
questioned with him concerning what he had told 


Strong Delusions 


13 


him as to his wife being his sister, and said, “Why 
didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why 
saidst thon, she is my sister ?” “She truly is my sis- 
ter,” so Abraham answered, “she is my father’s 
daughter, but not my mother’s daughter.” In 
the publication referred to, the Home Her- 
ald said that Abraham lied, because he said that 
his wife was his sister. Abraham certainly told 
the truth, for he said she was his Father’s daugh- 
ter, but not his mother’s, and she became his 
wife. Then she undoubtedly was the servant of 
God; for she was the mother of all the righteous 
that lived afterward, for all the good women are 
called the daughters of Abraham’s wife, as long 
as they do well, and are not afraid with any amaze- 
ment. Then we would say that Abraham told a 
two-fold truth; in that she was his sister in the 
flesh, and also in the spirit; for Jesus taught us, 
when on earth, that whosoever doeth the will of 
my Father, is my mother, and brother, and my sis- 
ter. The harm such publications do is incalculable, 
for there are but very few that do not believe what 
is published in a religious paper of good reputa- 
tion, taking for granted there is no error. And 
again, it is a false statement, because Abraham is 
in heaven, and the accusation can not apply to him 
in the least, nor can anything be said against them, 
without reproaching the pure name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, to say nothing of the slander cast 
upon Abraham, who is the father of all the right- 
eous from his day on down until now. Such a hid- 
eous charge as to say that Abraham is a liar. Away 
with all such delusion! The publisher is deluded, 
and deludes every one who reads such articles and 
believes them. What do you suppose Abraham 


14 


Strong Delusions 


thinks of us, or says about us, as he looks upon our 
depraved acts; in all of our deception, and our 
false accusations against him? Don’t you suppose 
that he is one of those saints that cry unto the 
great King, with a loud voice, saying, How long, O 
Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not judge, and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 
Seeing that those saints that kept the testimony of 
God, do know all about what is said and done upon 
earth. Let us be ashamed of ourselves to think or 
say anything disgraceful against the good charac- 
ter of any prophet of God that is dead and has 
gone to heaven. God’s word is truth, and when we 
change the word, or the divine sentiment, we then 
become liars and there is no truth in us. Then 
again to accuse our brother on earth or in heaven 
is to be just like the Devil. For he was not charged 
of any other sin only that of accusing his brethren 
all the time, and it caused war in heaven; so that 
he was overpowered and he was cast out, and all 
his angels, unto the earth, so their places were no 
more found in heaven, but reserved in chains of 
darkness, until the great judgment of God. There- 
fore, if false accusations will cause an angel to be 
hurled out of heaven when he is guilty of such 
habit, certainly it will keep a man who does such a 
thing, who has never attained such high dignity as 
the angels, out of heaven. This same paper, in ref- 
erence to Jacob’s obtaining his brother Esau’s birth- 
right, said that Jacob stole it from Esau. I will 
say that Jacob did not get the birthright in the ab- 
sence of Esau, and slip away, and conceal, or hide 
it ; but they were both together, and were very con- 
versant with each other, and fully agreed as to the 
trade; then Jacob paid a good ransom for the birth- 


Strong Delusions 


15 


right, if what Esau said was true; which we are 
bound to admit is the whole truth, for it is the re- 
vealed Word of God, for as I have stated in this 
book other where, he saved his brother’s life ; what 
greater thing could he have done? And the false 
statement does not apply to Jacob in the least, for 
Jacob is in heaven, and how can it refer to him in 
the least degree? All such flouts, and contemp- 
tuous words are applicable to all liars and thieves 
that are here among us now, and all such as are 
gone on to the eternal hell ; and to no others. Fur- 
ther, such accusations are becoming common in the 
pulpit, and in Sunday School teaching, and among 
many leading laymen of the church; showing the 
influence of the broadcasting of such public petty 
religious literature. The damaging influence of no 
other source can harm the kingdom of heaven in 
comparison as does this false teaching from the so- 
called leaders in Christendom. There is no right 
teaching or preaching that conflicts with the Word 
of God. Then again, no man has any right to any 
opinion, or belief, that does not agree with the re- 
vealed Word of God. That is unbelief in itself, and 
fills the minds of others full of doubts, which is a 
damning sin. There is only one plain statement or 
law laid down whereby we can be saved, and that 
is embodied, or collected, in these words : “Repent 
and believe and thou shalt be saved.” This law is 
in the present, not the past, nor is it in the future, 
but right now. Then you see that it begins with 
us in childhood, and continues with us as we live, 
and applies to every person, and always as we live; 
now this is not teaching to sin and repent, as is so 
commonly talked, and believed, but abstinence from 
every evil thing and repentance and belief, that we 


16 


Strong Delusions 


may be saved. We omit duty enough, without 
committing ourselves of any unrighteousness, to re- 
quire continued repentance for our eternal salva- 
tion. And I want to say, that this publication is 
not an exceptional case, on this subject. I have 
talked with other men, and numbers of them, that 
will say these same things about these Holy men 
that came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb. 


Strong Delusions 


17 


CHAPTER III. 

Rev. Mr. Stowe and Mr. Ratledge on the Same 
Line of Thought. 

I was talking with one Mr. Stowe, an ordained 
preacher of the Reformed Protestant Methodist 
Church that had been preaching for about thirty- 
five years, and he went so far as to say that Abra- 
ham and his wife conspired together to tell a lie; 
to deceive the King of Egypt and his people and 
this communication took place in the presence of 
his congregation, in his church, just before he 
preached. Then in his discourse he preached that 
every transaction of man was prompted by love, or 
the person would not have done the act. He said 
that if a man is in an affray and beats his antago- 
nist, that he does it through the love of revenge; 
or if he goes on, from crime to crime and commits 
murder, that he does it through the love he has for 
the shedding of blood, and the taking of life. And 
in his sermon left the impression, or rather con- 
veyed the full idea, that there was no hatred, but 
all was love, and everything was done from or 
through the motive of love. This old divine leaves 
the Devil and his work of hatred out of all the 
strife that is going on in all existence. Or, in other 
words, he attributes to satan a spirit of love, or the 
same as God, Who is love. 

I met an old Sunday School Superintendent 
at Guilford College, located in Guilford County, 
N. C., and in our talk he said that Jacob cheated 
everybody that he had dealings with and cheated 
his father and had to flee. At the same time a 
young lady w T ho was a school teacher, was present, 
2 


18 


Strong Delusions 


and in questioning her, she said : “There is a great 
deal of the Bible that — well, I don’t want to say 
what I think of it,” Such expressions are getting 
so common. Think of so many people that will 
condemn their Maker, the preserver and source of 
all life, the source of all joy, all happiness, and 
light, and peace. If it was not for the care that our 
Heavenly Father has for us, we could not have 
any being, or state of existence. A young man by 
the name of Ratledge preached a sermon on the 
second Sunday in June, 1912, at Zion Church, 
south of Greensboro, Guilford County, N. C. In 
his sermon he referred to what an infidel said about 
the human family, in comparison with the creation 
of the beasts of the earth, and said : “The infidel 
said the only difference in man and the beasts was 
that the beasts would forgive each other, but men 
would not forgive each other.” And the preacher 
said there was a whole lot of truth in his statement. 
To show the inconsistency of such a statement we 
must reverse the statement. The beast is so con- 
stituted that he can not forgive his fellow beast; 
but God in his wisdom has given the beast a gen- 
eral knowledge and instinct, so when there is a deci- 
sion to be made by any of them it is accomplished 
by strength, and when the stronger has overcome 
the weaker, he is satisfied, and the two ever after 
this go on with that understanding. This decision 
is commonly made early in life, and in many in- 
stances, the one subjected, or mastered, outgrows 
in size, and strength, though skill abides by this 
same decision, not having any mind to observe the 
difference. Now to the contrary with man. In 
the glory of his creation he has a mind — one of the 
greatest attributes ever possessed by anything, and 


Strong Delusions 


19 


rationality. This reasoning power enables man to 
consider any fault found in our fellowman ; and we 
can forgive him. Then to further show how he con- 
tradicted himself, he said in the same sermon that 
“it was an impossibility for any one to live a Chris- 
tian life, without forgiving his brethren.” This 
shows the weakness in the mind of man, taking up 
with the infidel or the Devil, and saying that there 
is a whole lot of truth in his statement, when there 
is no truth at all in any such stuff, hut a lie; for 
the Devil is a liar and the father of it. And then 
he turned and said that man was not like the infi- 
del said, but the sentiment of his statement was 
that the man is above the beast, in his expression ; 
that it was an impossibility for any one to live a 
Christian life except he forgive all. 


20 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER IV. 

Bishop Morrison’s Sermon on Consecration and 
What He Said. 

On another occasion, at an Annual Conference, 
Bishop Morrison preached on Sunday at eleven 
o’clock. He preached to the young preachers or- 
dained at this meeting on “Consecration, or Sanc- 
tification.” 

The first thing that Bishop Morison said was 
“The three leading sins of the world are strong 
drink, socialism and the use of tobacco.” But he 
said he was not a fanatic on the use of tobacco like 
some men. He believes that a man could use to- 
bacco and get to heaven. He said his father used 
tobacco and he died; he believes he was in heaven. 
He then said, “I wish I could attain the high stand- 
ard of character that my father attained.” He then 
explained to some extent how some men used the 
weed to excess, which is wrong in itself ; some men 
say that it was made for some good purpose. No 
one can prove that the weed was made and created, 
for it came forth under the curse, after man fell. 
God cursed the earth, and the briars, thorns, this- 
tles and every poisonous thing, came forth ; and all 
strife among the human family and all the fero- 
cious nature among the beasts of the field, and all 
savageness among all creation. This conveys the 
idea of cause and origin of every mean and wicked 
thing. God said “Touch not, taste not, handle not 
the unclean thing,” and if tobacco is not the un- 
clean thing among all other uncleanness, tell me 
what it is. Just see a man chewing the stuff and 
spitting the ambier about; also, after running 


Strong Delusions 


21 


down each side of his mouth and on his beard. Is 
it clean? Is not the cow that chews her cud, or 
the sheep cleaner? Then he did not dwell upon 
strong drink much, but said that depravity was not 
rottenness, like some men called rottenness; but it 
is like a car running on the track, and some object 
being on the rail derails the car. Then that is a 
depraved car. The wrecking crew come along and 
reinstate this car, and it becomes a prave car 
again. Just so with socialism, or depravity, which 
is the same, so far as human life is concerned. 

Let us see what God says about it. He says, Ye 
are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt lias lost its 
savor wherewith shall it be salted? It is thence- 
forth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be 
trodden under foot of men. Further says, It is 
neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, 
but men cast it out. He that has ears to hear, let 
him hear; which is the same as to say, You had 
better take notice what I say. 

You can plainly see that the Bishop was in error 
to this extent. 


22 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Bowles and the Creation of Our Fore- 
parents in Eternity. 

Mr. J. A. Bowles, on an Easter Sunday, at 
Groomtown, was preaching a very fine sermon un- 
til about the conclusion, when he said he did not 
know whether our foreparents were made in eter- 
nity or not; he said he could not conceive, nor any 
other one could. But let’s have the revealed Word 
to decide by : “And God said, Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness: so God created man 
in his own image; in the image of God created he 
him ; male and female created he them.” I ask the 
question, Would they have been like him if they 
were not going to live parallel with him? 

Certainly not, that to a great measure in the 
sense of life; and living parallel to God is a large 
part of man’s likeness to God. And furthermore, 
after the fall, when death was the inevitable fate, 
or doom, man was permitted to live for nearly one 
thousand years, which indicates the above likeness. 
But sin, as it increased caused those days to be 
shortened until the very short space of about thirty- 
five years, which is the limit of the average space 
of life. 

And again, the Lord God planted a garden east- 
ward in Eden ; and there he put the man whom he 
had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord 
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight 
and good for food; the tree of life was also in the 
midst of the garden, and the knowledge of good 
and evil ; and the Lord God took the man and put 
him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep 


Strong Delusions 23 


it. And the Lord God commanded the man, say- 
ing, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely 
eat. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, 
thon shalt not eat of it : for in the day thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die. 

It is very obvious that if they were subject to 
death, from creation, that the command would not 
have restrained them at all. Then again, after they 
had eaten of the tree of knowledge, and fell, the 
Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one 
of us, to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put 
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and 
eat and live forever : Therefore the Lord God sent 
him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the 
ground from whence he was taken. So he drove 
out the man ; and he placed at the east of the gar- 
den of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword, which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of 
life. 

Now, we see that it is positively stated that we 
would have lived forever, if our parents had been 
permitted to eat of the tree of life. Just think for 
a moment of the state of mankind, living in this 
fallen state forever! With the increased popula- 
tion the earth would soon have been over-popula- 
ted, — there would not have been standing room at 
this time. According to the best estimates made, 
there have enough people lived and died on the 
earth, as it is today, to lay human bodies, three 
deep, all over the face thereof. And just think of 
the people if no one had ever died! This is very 
suggestive, but the Lord God in his wisdom, pre- 
vented this by the cherubim and the flaming sword. 
Then again — which is very strong evidence of be- 
ing made in eternity — once we come into existence 


24 


Strong Delusions 


we never go out. After this life, which is short — 
very short — if we have lived a righteous life we go 
to the great beyond, to bask in the realms of eter- 
nal bliss and joy, to live with our great Creator 
eternally; or, on the other hand, we go down to 
the eternal suffering of fire and brimstone, never 
to be exterminated. And again God says : “Where- 
fore, by one man sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men for 
that all have sinned.” It is surely obvious that, 
according to the revelation of God’s Word, that our 
parents were made to live on and on, parallel with 
God. And, notwithstanding the short preparatory 
life, we believe that our spirits and bodies at the 
resurrection will reunite, and live forever and ever. 


Strong Delusions 


25 


CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. V. A. Sharpe on The Foreknowledge of 
God. 

On another occasion Rey. V. A. Sharpe, when he 
presided as Elder over the Greensboro district, 
preached on the subject of God Trying His People 
in the Wilderness. He said: “If God foreknew 
what man would do, he has not condescended to let 
us know it.” One of the first things that is pre- 
dicted in the Old Testament is that the seed of the 
woman shall bruise the serpent’s head; also that 
man shall live by the sweat of his face. And again, 
God said, “The day thou eatest of the fruit of the 
tree of good and evil, thou shall surely die.” These 
predictions have surely been verified, and from 
generation to generation. People have not ceased 
to die. We look back — where are our fathers, and 
mothers, and all of the past generations? Are they 
not dead and lying in their graves and awaiting 
the morn of the resurrection? Has it not been, for 
all time past, fulfilled in man, that he lives by the 
sweat of his face, and is it not still being fulfilled? 
Then the whole law has been fulfilled in the death 
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Just 
these three instances show conclusively that God 
foreknew all things. 

Referring to what God said to King Solomon as 
to serving him: “The Lord searcheth all hearts, 
and understandeth all the imaginations of the 
thoughts : if thou seek him he will be found of thee ; 
but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for- 
ever.” Job acknowledges that God can do every- 
thing; and that no thought can be witheld from 


26 


Strong Delusions 


him. “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine up- 
rising; thou understandest my thoughts afar off,” 
and many such expressions, in both the Old and 
New Testaments. Therefore, if God did not fore- 
know all things and the very secrets of all hearts, 
how could he have inspired man to have prophesied 
things to come and them come to pass, as we well 
know? Furthermore, he would be incapable of just 
judgment could he judge only by the testimony of 
eye witnesses. Then all the hidden things would 
go free of punishment! Away with all such doc- 
trine — it is full of delusion. 

Such doctrine, preached by leading preachers, is 
doing untold harm, inasmuch as many persons be- 
lieve it. I talked with one of the leading members 
of one church in the District, and he fully believed 
that Mr. Sharp was right. He tried with all his 
might to substantiate the same, but he had no 
scripture that he could use in his argument. 


Strong Delusions 


27 


CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. E. K. McLarty on The Deadness of the Law. 

Mr. E. K. McLarty, at West Market Street 
Church, on the last Sunday in February, 1912, 
preached a sermon on “The Law and Its Relation* 
ship to grace, or the Spirit.” He preached the law 
as dead as death itself. 

J esus Christ did not come to destroy the law, but 
to fulfill the law; that inasmuch as those who 
served God and kept the law in time past, and be- 
lieved God, were saved by the law. What shall we 
say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I 
had not known sin but by the law: for I had not 
known lust except the law had said, “Thou shalt 
not covet.” For, without the law, sin was dead. 
Or, in other words there would have been no sin if 
God had not given a law. And the commandment 
which was ordained unto life, I found to be death. 
For sin taketh occasion by the commandment, and 
hath deceived me, and by it slew me ; wherefore the 
law is holy and the commandment holy, and just 
and good. Therefore we see that the law, being 
good, was not death unto me, or any that are justi- 
fied, but sin, that it might appear sin, working 
death in me by that which is good. For we know 
that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold un- 
der sin. Here we must confess that the law is not 
so dead as Mr. McLarty said, but sin. 

The Apostle Paul was teaching the people not to 
worship under the old dispensation — sacrificing by 
the blood of bulls and goats, but turn to Jesus and 
accept the blood of Christ in the remission of sin, 
and worship him in spirit and in truth. 


28 


Strong Delusions 


I think that Mr. McLarty’s sermon would have 
been more fitting for the Jews, in their synagogues 
of worship at this day and time, than for his con- 
gregation, or any other Bible-reading people, for 
they sin greatly by trying, or by worshiping, under 
the law, and it becomes death unto them by sin. 


Strong Delusions 


29 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Mr. L. S. Chaffer’s Sermon on The Devil’s 
Rights and Possession. 

Rev. L. S. Chaffer spoke in Greensboro, N. C., 
on Thursday, February 29, 1912, at the Y. M. C. 
A., on “The Convicting of the Spirit.” He said: 
“This is a great illumination of the persons whom 
satan has blinded. As satan’s blinding is at the one 
point of the way of salvation by the cross, this work 
of the spirit is to give full vision at the very same 
point.” I am at much loss to see how these two 
opposites can begin at the same point, when satan 
never was crucified. The idea of the two spirits is 
just as far apart as darkness and light. Satan be- 
gins his work at the earliest possible stage of hu- 
man life, or at the age of accountability in any and 
all persons, and then drags downward and still 
downward. This is construed by the scriptures 
very appropriately, as “walking in darkness.” Af- 
ter the lust of our own hearts, doing the works of 
satan by disobedience to God and his laws. On the 
other hand the Spirit, through the preaching of the 
Gospel, at whatever age or point of any one’s life, 
we are convicted and convinced of our sins, then 
we are lifted up to the cross of Christ, being washed 
with the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross 
applied by the Holy Spirit. 

This starting point being determined by each in- 
dividual at his own will, according to his own 
knowledge of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
accepting and believing the same, through the Holy 
Spirit, Then I say, the starting point is deter- 
mined within the free will-power of each individ- 


30 


Strong Delusions 


ual, for righteousness, according to the influence 
brought to bear from without, by the gospel. Sa- 
tan’s starting point is naturally at the accountable 
line of every individual, for we are conceived in sin 
and brought forth in iniquity. We then willingly 
and naturally go after Satan, which is his first 
starting point, and then, ever after that he makes 
starting points in every man’s life, wherever he pos- 
sibly can, after the man has been changed from 
nature to grace. 

I should say that these two starting points are 
very different and far apart. Satan may have 
dragged a soul very low down, through many years 
of life, and then God, through the death of his only 
Son, in mercy redeems that soul from death, at a 
last day, or days, of its life. In the same publica- 
tion was set forth the discussion, by Mr. Chaffer, 
the present place and power of satan. He said “he 
wrested the sceptre of world rule from Adam, and 
held it by right of conquest, until the first advent 
of Christ. Even God recognized satan’s rights.” 

To offset this statement he (Satan) assumes a 
lie. He said, “Ye shall not surely die; for God doth 
know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes 
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
good and evil.” Sceptre, the English definition of 
which is to send or thrust ; a staff or baton borne by 
kings on solemn occasions ; the appropriate ensign 
of royalty; an ensign of higher antiquity than the 
crown; hence, royal power or authority. Here I 
ask the question : Has the Devil got the crown of 
authority? or any other badge of authority? Does 
he have any solemn occasions? I answer that if 
we will search the Scriptures we will find that the 
only badge, or sceptre that belongs to him is that 


Strong Delusions 


31 


lie is a murderer from the beginning ; a liar and 
the father of it. And this is given to him by the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Mr. Chaffer said he obtained the sceptre by right 
of conquest. The English meaning of this word 
conquest is: The act of conquering; the act of 
overcoming or vanquishing opposition, by force, — 
physical or moral. I ask again, Does the Devil 
have any physical or moral force? Does he have 
any way of fighting — any battle by coercion? If 
he has, where did he get this power? And when 
did he use it? The truth of the matter is that he 
does not possess any of these qualities; he is en- 
tirely false; does everything by and through decep- 
tion, making of shadows false lights. If he had 
any coercive strength or power, then man would 
have no choice; Adam and Eve took their own 
choice through the delusion of Satan, and fell. 

Does God recognize the rights of Satan? “And 
the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou 
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, 
and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly 
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days 
of thy life : and I will put enmity between thee and 
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it 
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
heel. “And dust shalt be the srpent’s meat. They 
shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move 
out of their holes like worms of the earth; they 
shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear 
because of thee.” This doesn’t sound like recogniz- 
ing the Devil’s rights — the fact is, he has no 
rights — they are all forfeited, never to be regained. 
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 


32 


Strong Delusions 


When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: 
for he is a liar, and the father of it. God does not 
recognize those that follow the Devil, no more than 
does He recognize the Devil’s rights. God says, “Ye 
are of your father, the Devil, and the lust of your 
father will ye do. O full of all subtlety and all 
mischief, thou child of the Devil, thou enemy of all 
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the 
right ways of the Lord?” 

Again, “He that committeth sin is of the Devil, 
for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this 
purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he 
might destroy the works of the Devil.” If the above 
is not convincing to any one, it is useless to talk to 
such an one. 

Mr. Chaffer said that “Satan, in the wilderness, 
offered all these kingdoms to Christ but the temp- 
tation was unavailing.” “Satan had the kingdom 
to offer,” Mr. Chaffer said, “or it would have been 
no temptation.” 

Does the Devil own this world? or the kingdoms 
of this world? Does he own the mineral kingdom? 
or does he own the vegetable kingdom? or the an- 
imal kingdom? Or will anyone dare say that the 
Devil, and Satan, that old Serpent, owns the hu- 
man kingdom? It does seem that it would be use- 
less to ask if he owns the heavenly kingdom, but 
if he owns anyone of the kingdoms of this earth, he 
owns all of them. Or, if not, let us have them des- 
ignated, showing them. 

Now, if the Devil had obtained the crown, or by 
force or power taken the kingdoms of the world, 
then everything that is in existence, would have 
come to an end — the earth, heaven and the Heaven 
of Heavens, would have ceased to be. All would 


Strong Delusions 


33 


have been lost. For heaven depended upon the 
blood of the Lamb, for by the blood of the Lamb 
was the Devil cast out of heaven : and that is why 
he is here on this earth, with such wrath seeking 
whom he may devour. And it seems that he is 
playing havoc with the human family just now. 

I will just say no. 

“And the Devil taketh him up into a high moun- 
tain, and shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the 
w T orld in a moment of time. And the Devil said, 
all this power will I give thee, and the glory of it; 
for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever 
I will, I give it. If thou therefore will worship me, 
all shall be thine.” 

This saying on the mountain is the only state- 
ment in the Bible that all the kingdoms of the 
world belong to him, or are delivered unto him, 
and is not quoted, only by Luke; and this was the 
Devil’s own statement. 

Let’s see some of the truths set forth in God’s 
Word as to his ownership : “The sceptre shall not 
depart from Juda, nor a lawgiver from between his 
feet, until Shiloh come.” “If I were, hungry, I 
would not tell thee : for the world is mine and the 
fulness thereof. For every beast of the forest is 
mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know 
all the fowls of the mountains : and the wild beasts 
of the fields are mine. For all the earth is mine. 
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and 
an holy nation.” “Behold, the heaven, and the 
Heaven of Heavens is the Lord’s thy God ; the earth 
also, with all that therein is, who hath prevented 
me, that I should repay him?” “Whatsoever is un- 
der the whole heaven is mine. The earth is the 
Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world and they 


3 


34 


Strong Delusions 


that dwell therein.” “Know ye that the Lord he is 
God; it is he that hath made us, and not we our- 
selves ; we are his people, and the sheep of his pas- 
ture.” These are only a few texts of the Holy 
Word of God, to show the ownership of this world 
and its kingdoms ; there are enough like statements 
to fill several pages : I will take his own chapter — 
his own text: “Of judgment, because the Prince 
of this world is judged.” Who is this Prince that is 
judged? God says “If judgment begins at the 
house of God, where will it end?” Yea, he magni- 
fied himself even to the Prince of the host, “For 
unto us a child is horn, unto us a son is given : and 
the government shall be upon his shoulders: and 
his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, 
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The 
Prince of Peace. He shall also stand up against 
the prince of princes; but he shall be broken with- 
out hands. And killed, the Prince of Life, whom 
God hath raised from the dead; wherefore we are 
witnesses.” “Therefore I have profaned the 
Princes of the Sanctuary, and have given Jacob to 
the curse, and Israel to reproaches. O Lord, to us 
belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our 
princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned 
against thee.” “I have seen servants upon horses, 
and princes walking as servants upon the earth. 
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son 
of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for 
strength, and not for drunkenness.” “For he saith, 
Are not my princes altogether kings? Now is the 
judgment of this world: now shall the prince of 
this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (Joshua 
5:14.) “And he said, Nay, but as captain of the 


Strong Delusions 


35 


host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell 
on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said 
unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? 
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the 
children of disobedience.” 

The above references all point to the Prince of 
Peace, except the last, which will be found in 
Ephesians 2 :2, and the Apostle refers to this to 
show us, as near as language will convey, that we 
are fighting against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
against spiritual wickedness in high places. The 
same as to say, we are fighting against ourselves, 
or something like the wind. 

“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight 
I, not as one that beateth the air : But I keep un- 
der my body, and bring into subjection: for ye 
shall speak into the air.” The Apostle Paul uses 
these terms to show the silliness of our struggling 
with what is known as the power of darkness, or 
the only belonging of the Devil, or, attributes that 
belong to the Devil. He has nothing, and no man 
has any right to say he has. As I have said above, 
the Devil has no sceptre ; if he had won the crown 
then and there, the battle would have been ended, 
as all battles end by conquest, or by coercion, or by 
any other way of fighting. Mr. Chaffer said : “At 
the cross, Christ wholly triumphed over Satan and 
secured a perfect sentence for his final destruction, 
yet he is acknowledged in all the New Testament.” 
Sounds a little like there had to be another effort to 
regain this great kingdom, after Satan had so suc- 
cessfully won it. If he could have gotten the crown 


36 


Strong Delusions 


he could have held it. He never obtained the 
Kingdom, never did have it, and never will have it. 
He was cast out of heaven, and will be cast out of 
the earth into hell fire. 

The 17th chapter of Revelation says : “The 
beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall 
ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdi- 
tion : and those that dwell on the earth shall won- 
der, whose names were not written in the book of 
life from the foundation of the world, when they 
behold the beast that was, and is not and yet is.” 
This is explained, “And there are seven kings : five 
are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet 
come; and when he cometh, he must continue a 
short space; and the beast that was, and is not, 
even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth 
into perdition.” “And all the world wondered af- 
ter the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which 
gave power unto the beast ; and they worshiped the 
beast, saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is 
able to make war with him? He that leadeth into 
captivity shall go into captivity.” You see by this 
scripture that the Devil has no kingdom. God 
says there is the eighth, and it is not, thus signifying 
that the Devil has no kingdom. 

Mr. Chaffer must have judged the battle by the 
number, and not by power; God says one shall 
chase a thousand and two shall put ten thousand 
to flight. 

I believe in free moral agency ; if a man will, he 
can live right; or he can choose for himself wrong 
and be destroyed. 

Mr. Chaffer says that God places the believer in 
a perfect standing before himself ; as perfect as he 
will be ever, for he is made accepted in the Beloved, 


Strong Delusions 


37 


who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Now 
Mr. Chaffer shows his complete perfection in 
Christ before God, and then backs down and says 
that his daily life may be very incomplete at best. 
See how perfect God has made the man and then lie 
preaches him to imperfection. God sayeth that he 
that sinneth is of the Devil, and Mr. Chaffer admits 
that his perfect child sins, and that God chastises 
without condemnation; then crosses himself again 
by saying that God’s new covenant is that those 
whom he saves shall not come into condemnation, 
nor will he ever cast them out. So you can see very 
plainly that Mr. Chaffer crosses himself in this 
discourse, both ways, going and coming. He first 
says that God made a man perfect in himself ; and 
then admits that he is not able to keep him perfect 
in himself. We don’t wonder at him saying that 
the Devil has world rule, for he gives him the pre- 
eminence in this tangled doctrine. It is just like 
all deluded stuff, that is advanced by all that are 
in this case. They cross and tangle, and don’t 
seem to know that they are crooked. He said Jesus 
is the same yesterday, today and forever. The sole 
reason why we should seek Jesus and his kingdom 
and abide in him. For in time past he killed a man 
for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day; and 
killed two men for offering strange fire before 
the Lord ; and destroyed Korah and Dathan 
for assuming the right of the high priests; and 
killed Ananias and Sapphira his wife, for lying; 
and many other more general destructions, for 
the wickedness of the people; showing the cer- 
tainty of the destruction of this people if we obey 
not the Word of God. The same as to say that his 
being the same is sufficient to keep us right in the 


38 


Strong Delusions 


sight of the Father; but to the contrary, it is just 
the reason that God requires us to perfect our- 
selves in the life of his Son, who made the way per- 
fect for us. According to the Word of God we, by 
repentance and faith, are made whole in Christ 
Jesus and are perfect before God; and are accepted 
of him as such. Then we, by continued worship 
and our perfect obedience, keep ourselves in Christ 
Jesus, so we have the sweet communion, through 
the Spirit with the Father, and obtain his ap- 
proval; and if this continues, then we will not be 
condemned or cast out. So you see that a whole lot 
depends on us as to our salvation, and I will just 
say that if we fail to save ourselves and help to 
save others that we will never be saved. The battle 
is not between the Spirits — the Spirit of Jehovah 
and the Spirit of the Wicked One — it is between 
the Devil and us. It is very significant. “And there 
was war in Heaven : Michael and his angels fought 
against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and 
his angels: And prevailed not; neither was their 
place found any more in heaven.” And the great 
dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the 
Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world : 
he was cast into the earth, and his angels were cast 
out with him. 

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now 
is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom 
of our God, and the power of his Christ : for the ac- 
cuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused 
them before our God day and night. And they 
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the 
word of their testimony; and they loved not their 
lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens 
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants 


Strong Delusions 


39 


of the earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come 
down unto you, having great wrath, because he 
knoweth that he hath but a short time.” To show 
that I know what I am talking about when I say 
that the battle is between us and Satan, the divine 
sentiment of the above Scripture is that the Devil 
was conquered and cast out of Heaven into the 
earth. “And when he saw that he was cast unto 
the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought 
the man child. And the dragon was wroth with 
the woman and went to make war with the rem- 
nant of her seed, which keep the commandments 
of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” 
See Romans 7 :23. 

“But I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin which is in my mem- 
bers.” This text, referred to by the Apostle Paul 
in his letter to the Romans, shows that we are at 
war with our members, we being conceived in sin 
and brought forth in iniquity, Satan deceiving us 
through the lust of the flesh. We being the rem- 
nant who are serving our Maker, which is spoken of 
by the Revelation; that the Devil is warring for 
and striving to get us, in his wrath. So we have to 
fight if we would win. And there is no weapon 
that serves like the truth when it is wielded with 
the strength of the spirit ; the enemy can not stand 
before it ; as is above stated, Satan was conquered 
and cast out of Heaven; and Jesus being the Son 
of God and having all power, came in due time to 
our rescue and conquered in this conflict of ours, 
thus leaving the battle of righteousness for us to 
fight out ourselves through the atoning blood of 
Jesus Christ our High Priest, against the wrath 


40 


Strong Delusions 


and fiery darts of Satan who overcomes so many of 
the human family by his deception and subtile in- 
genuity. 

Mr. Chaffer seems to have the ring, all through 
his sermons on his doctrine, that Cod saves us very 
independently — does not attach anything much to 
our part of the work in performing the salvation 
of our souls. But the way God has planned for 
our soul salvation certainly involved a full surren- 
der on our part, to him, through Jesus Christ his 
Son, and at that juncture, he by his holy spirit 
washes us and makes us perfectly clean; washing 
our sins all away. Then he commands us to abide 
in him by keeping ourselves unspotted from the 
world and to minister unto those that are in need, 
both temporally and spiritually. So you see that 
the first part of our being saved depends entirely 
upon us ; and then God does his work which he has 
promised through his Son. Now we have just en- 
tered the race, and the whole travel involves work, 
and very faithful, hard work too, and very often 
work under the most adverse circumstances — of 
afflictions, trials and conflicts. For instance, take 
Job’s case, Daniel’s case, Jeremiah’s case and John 
the Baptist’s case; read the stories of their lives, 
and see if they had easy sailing and had nothing 
to do. Now Mr. Chaffer says that Jesus — God, 
we will say — “is the same yesterday, today and 
forever more.” Then if he is, which I don’t doubt, 
do you suppose that he would have had those an- 
cient saints to have worked and striven so hard 
under such adverse and unexpected circumstances 
for their salvation and heavenly home; and then 
save us without work just because he gave his Son 
to redeem us? Nay, to be sure, he will not, but de- 


Strong Delusions 


41 


mands that we be more constant, and more pro- 
gressive, and more diligent, in our work than they 
were required to be in theirs, for he says, “Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature, and he that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be 
damned.” Then Mr. Chaffer gets things all 
clogged up in showing Satan’s rule-power — in 
saying that after Satan sinned that there was sor- 
row, suffering and death. We cannot tell when 
he first sinned for he was in eternity, and there 
was no death that we know anything of until he 
beguiled our foreparents. Then he further states 
that: “When Satan is banished into the earth, 
according to Revelation, 12 :9, there is great tribu- 
lation”; this word tribulation is not used in this 
verse and does not apply. But in the twelfth verse 
in the same chapter you will see the word “Woe” 
was used to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea. 

“For the Devil is come down unto you, having 
great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but 
a short time.” Woe is simply a curse that was 
pronounced on the people of the earth, and it cov- 
ers all creation, because the Devil has come down 
unto you. The Devil inflicts, or is permitted to 
inflict, a curse. Mr. Chaffer refers to the time 
that he is chained, saying : “And when he is placed 
in the pit there is kingdom blessings.” He seems 
to take a very mild expressive form of condemning 
the devil. I will give God’s word in this connec- 
tion: “And I saw an angel come down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a 
great chain in his hand; and he laid hold on the 
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and 
Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” 


42 


Strong Delusions 


Mr. Chaffer uses the word “placed”; this sim- 
ply conveys the idea of being fixed or established, 
and in its general sense conveys a place of prefer- 
ence, or a place which is agreeable. But God 
used the words: “Cast him into the bottomless 
pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that 
he should deceive the nations no more until the 
thousand years should be fulfilled.” Now you see 
God uses the word “cast” which is very different in 
meaning. It means to throw, fling, or send, that 
is, to drive from by force, as from the hand or 
from an engine. So you see by the above there is 
much difference in the sentiment. Then when he 
is chained the kingdom is established for one thous- 
and years. Then Mr. Chaffer refers to his being 
loose a little season and says: “At the end he is 
loosed for a little season, and instantly there is 
war and distress until he is placed in his final 
doom so perfectly decreed at the cross.” You see 
he uses the word placed again, and he says that in- 
stantly there was war and distress, again. I will 
give God’s word here again; the full divine senti- 
ment is: “The Devil was loosed a little season, 
and he gathered all his force, Gog and Magog, to 
gather them together for battle, the number of 
whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went 
upon the breadth of the earth and encompassed 
the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. 
And fire came down out of heaven and devoured 
them. And the Devil was cast into a lake of fire 
and brimstone, and all that have followed him, and 
are tormented with him forever and ever.” If 
you will examine this Scripture you will see that 
the Devil gathered his army together and encom- 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the holy 


Strong Delusions 


43 


city, their camp being inside the city. He was not 
permitted to come nigh them nor touch them, and 
fire came down on them and devoured them. 
Where does the idea come in of war and distress? 
The fact is that there was no such thing. Satan 
only made ready for the battle and encompassed 
the city, whose wall is of pure jasper stone, one 
hundred and forty and four feet thick, and then 
he was destroyed. And to say that there was dis- 
tress among the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem 
is just the same as to say that the saints can be 
distressed in heaven. Such stuff is provocations; 
in Hod’s statement that at the end of the thousand 
years the Devil shall be loosed a little season, he 
states that he shall not have power to hurt the 
saints. This letting Satan loose seems to be on 
purpose to shut his mouth, as to his being chained, 
so he would have no excuse ; for he would say unto 
God, “You chained me or I would have gained the 
victory.” 

In Mr. Chaffer’s meeting he denounced personal 
work, and said “that prayer was the thing, if we 
would pray earnestly that God would hear our 
prayers, or the prayers of his children, and the 
convincing power would be granted.” And when 
he was interviewed he said that “he knew a man 
that was ever on the alert to accost every one he 
met about his religion, and all who knew him 
would shun him with hatred and disgust to such 
an extent as to stand up and ride to their work on 
the cars rather than sit on a seat with this man. 
He said when it came to that we had better let per- 
sohal work alone.” If personal work is prohibited 
there will be no work done worth while. That is 
the trouble with the whole church now. God says, 
“Do good and communicate and forget it not, for 


44 


Strong Delusions 


with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” And 
again : “For God is not unrighteous to for- 

get your work and labor of love, which ye have 
shown toward his name, in that ye have ministered 
to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that 
every one of you show the same diligence, to the 
full assurance of hope unto the end.” Here is all 
the proof that is needed to show the truth of per- 
sonal work. 

Mr. Chaffer said there were about thirty great, 
revealed, heavenly blessings into which God brings 
us, and that all were beyond human attainment. 
Then we are not responsible as to them. “The 
first of these is a perfect standing in Christ.” 
We attain this high standing in Christ by repent- 
ance and faith in the regeneration of the spirit, 
and if we stand aloof and fail to come and accept 
his offer of grace, God cannot confer a blessing 
on us. We, by continued service to God, maintain 
this perfect standing before God, the Father. God 
says, “Repent and believe and thou shaft be saved.” 
The command is, “Be ye therefore perfect as your 
Father in heaven is perfect.” Mr. Chaffer further 
says that “though the daily life of the Christian 
may be very incomplete at best, but God always 
deals with it as a father with his own child. The 
sin of the Christian is punished by chastisement 
and not condemnation. For under his new cove- 
nant those he saves shall never be condemned or 
cast out.” In answer to these questions condemn- 
ing or casting out his children, I will say that as 
long as they hold out to be faithful in righteous- 
ness he will not cast them out, but as soon as we 
cease to obey God and his commandments then we 
are cast out, and at the end of life into outer dark- 
ness. “There shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth.” 


Strong Delusions 


45 


CHAPTER IX. 

Rev. Geo. D. Hermon’s Sermon. 

HE SAYS THAT THE DEVIL CAN INSPIRE MEN. 

The Rev. George D. Hermon preached a sermon, 
published in the Western North Carolina Chris- 
tian Advocate, Volume Fifty-seven, number four. 
His text was “The New and the Old Bible.” In 
his sermon he said many of the finest things, in a 
common way, I ever read, about God’s great Book, 
of his Revealed Word. In the outset he said that 
“the Bible is the newest, the freshest, the strongest 
and the most influential book in the world. Like 
the sun the Bible never grows old; and like the 
sun the Bible is full of light.” And goes on show- 
ing what the Bible has done for the upbuilding of 
nations; where it has moulded them into civiliza- 
tion and greatness. He further shows that the 
Bible is a book of inspiration, and inspires our 
race of people with the highest ideals, social and 
moral, political and religious, that can come from 
any source whatsoever. He showed how reason- 
able the Bible is, and how it forsakes evil and 
cleaves always to that which is good. “It im- 
presses upon us the truth, to speak the truth, to 
love the truth, and to live the truth, that we may 
attain the highest, longest, possible freedom. And 
it does not ignore means of temporal interest as 
long as we use them for the one express purpose of 
glorifying the name of our great Maker. But it 
does impress the highest and most supreme pur- 
pose, above all other things,— spiritual and eter- 
nal treasures. It enjoins on us to seek first the 


46 


Strong Delusions 


kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added. The Bible deals with 
the most impartial events in human history. It is 
the only book that gives a full and truthful ac- 
count of all creation, the fall of man, the destruc- 
tion by the flood, the call of Abraham, the travel 
of Israel through the wilderness, and the saving of 
the great prophet Moses, and giving of the Law by 
him. There is no other book that tells of the incar- 
nation of the Son of God, the life, the all- 
atoning death, the triumphant resurrection, the 
glorious ascension and the intercession of the 
only begotten Son of God. No other book 
tells of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the work 
and leading of the same, nor the inauguration 
of the kingdom of God on earth among men, and 
of a general judgment, at the second coming of 
the Son, of the living God. Therefore the inspira- 
tion of this Holy revealed Word of God is as broad 
as creation, and as deep as God saw fit to reveal to 
man and as high as heaven, and as enduring as 
eternity. This revelation is progressive; all 
through the Old Testament God revealed himself, 
through Holy men, by signs and wonders. The 
Bible does not come to the full and perfect glory, un- 
til the fulfilling, in the person of Jesus Christ. He 
is the truth of life, light, and truth of the world. 
There is no contradiction in the divine sentiment, 
in the teaching of the Old and New Testaments; 
they only differ in the mode of worship. They 
worship by works, while we worship in spirit and in 
truth. They worshipped by the offering of the blood 
of lambs and beasts, and the sprinkling of blood. 
All pointed to the coming Messiah. We do away 
with the Jewish Passover because the Lamb of 


Strong Delusions 


47 


God has come, and tasted death for every man, and 
paid the debt for sin. The Lord’s sermon on the 
Mount is greater than the ten commandments, and 
sheds more light on fallen man than all the Old 
Testament. The Bible is a book of aspiration and 
inspiration, experiences and actions. It repre- 
sents the best that men have done, thought, said 
and felt; man is not capable of going beyond its 
teachings. This Bible was first written by men, 
inspired by the living God, of like passion as we, 
who believed God. They were tempted and tried, 
but lived real and just lives. It is therefore a 
book of the living and not a book of the dead. It 
reveals what men of like passion as we thought and 
felt, said and did under the life-giving touch of 
the Holy Spirit. It flashes on the canvas of God, 
inspired men in their conflicts with doubt and 
fear and sin, but seeking with undying hope the 
golden city beyond the glimmering stars, where 
the wicked cease their troubling and the weary 
are at rest.” These are a few things he said, with 
some additions, but we regret to say in referring to 
what he says of God-inspired men, and on the 
other hand of Devil-inspired men, and tells what 
they have done and will do, does not apply and 
cannot be so. He said : “It shows us what God- 
inspired men will do. It reveals what Devil- 
inspired men have done and will do.” “It shows 
how Moses, a God-inspired man, denied himself 
of all the glories of the kingdom of Egypt to suf- 
fer with the people of God, that he might inherit 
the true riches, among the king-born sons of light 
in heaven. But in opposition to this Moses we 
have a Devil-inspired man — Pharaoh, who shut his 
eyes to the light, hardened his heart, and refused 


48 


Strong Delusions 


to respond to the voice of God.” He points out 
two other Devil-inspired men; cowardly Pilate, 
the king, and Judas Iscariot, the traitor. I want 
to correct this error in Mr. Hermon’s sermon; for 
I think that this is as high a calling as God con- 
fers on any person, if he can also see his own 
errors. Now the error is the statement that the 
Devil inspired a man. It does not make any differ- 
ence what view or standpoint Mr. Herinon, or any 
other person takes of this statement, it is wrong and 
radically w T rong. Inspiration is the power to in- 
fuse life into another body. This is what the Devil 
cannot do, but to the contrary he is the source of 
death by his craftiness and subtilty. He induced 
our first parents to disobey, and by disobedience 
came death; hence the Devil is delusion, degrada- 
tion and death, not only temporal, but eternal 
death. If we, like Pharaoh, follow lust, vanity, 
pride, inconsistency, selfishness and all profane 
babbling, and every kind of intemperance, then we 
will be walking right along in the wicked and the 
uninspired steps of these men that Mr. Hermon re- 
ferred to — Pharaoh, Pilate and Judas. Thus, ac- 
cording to our own choice in so doing, we choose 
death rather than life. There being no compul- 
sory law by which we are governed, God himself 
leaving man free to choose for himself, this is one 
of the most glorious privileges that could be con- 
ferred on any being of intelligence. Whoever heard 
of a Devil-inspired man before? Mr. Hermon has 
told us something new (that seems to be the fad of 
the day) — something that no one else had thought 
of. Now, let us examine a little further into the 
idea of inspiration. Has the Devil ever put life into 
anything? If so, when and how? No, but by our 
parents accepting the temptation it caused death, 


Strong Delusions 


49 


both temporal and eternal. Has he infused life into 
any one since the creation? No, but by his inge- 
nuity he has infused death into millions and billions 
and tens of billions since man was made, and is 
playing with most wonderful, influential effect, 
seemingly right now, on the whole human family, 
at the present day. 

There is no logic at all in any idea that conveys 
an untruth, and it is an impossibility for one idea 
expressed to convey the two opposites, say, life 
and death. Inspiration in its full sense conveys 
the power of giving life, and giving life more 
abundantly; and now I ask, how can the word 
convey the opposite, death? It does not, but con- 
veys and signifies that the Devil, as is explained, 
infuses delusion, degradation and death; and can 
not inspire anything. It is beyond his power. 

We scarcely ever hear a perfect sermon preached, 
and it is a very rare thing to hear teachers of the 
Bible in Sunday School or anywhere else, teaching 
the Word correctly. They nearly always have 
some new-fangled stuff that is in no way true; 
many times falsifying the Word of God, who made 
them, and accusing Him of crime for lack of knowl- 
edge. 

Again, has the Devil ever revealed himself to us 
in any way? All that we know about him God has 
revealed unto us through his Word; the Devil has 
no revealed word, and cannot reveal himself in 
any other way that is known to man. God has re- 
vealed himself unto us through Holy men in time 
past, and in these latter days made himself known 
through his Son Jesus Christ. And he gave his 
Son that we might have life and life more abun- 
dantly. He also came into the world that he might 
destroy the works of the Devil. 

4 


50 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER X. 

The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus. 

COMMENTS BY THE NEW YORK AND NORTH CAROLINA 
CHRISTIAN ADVOCATES. 

In the Sunday School comment in the Western 
North Carolina Christian Advocate , taken from the 
New York Christian Advocate , discussing the rea- 
son why Jesus so eagerly sought to be baptized of 
John unto repentance, was the thought of consecra- 
tion as well as the thought of repentance, and says 
“that we must connect the baptism of Jesus with 
the thought of penitence if we are to save it from 
a touch of unreality, and this connection we must 
very frankly make.” Here I ask, who would, or 
can any one for a moment have the least shadow 
of doubt of the reality in the life of the Son of 
God? To raise such questions is to confuse and 
delude the minds of people who are not well in- 
formed on the Scriptures, — and of such there are 
many. As I have been doing personal work I have 
a perfect opportunity of finding out this fact. It 
makes one shudder to think of such a few people 
who read God’s word at all; and some who do 
read, I might say many, get very erroneous ideas, 
which are worse apparently than for them not to 
have read at all. The life of the only begotten Son 
of God was a perfect life from his birth ; he never 
did any sin, and as far as we know he was conse- 
crated from the earliest days of his life. We have 
no account of his not knowing righteousness from 
the first of his life. We assuredly have the testi- 
mony in God’s word that he was without sin. And 


Strong Delusions 


51 


tlie statement is repeated that God gave him a 
double portion of His Spirit; then we can see that 
the Spirit kept him. Let us see if we can get a 
perfect reason for his baptism: “Then cometh 
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be bap- 
tized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I 
have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou 
to me? And Jesus answering said unto him : Suf- 
fer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to ful- 
fill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And 
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway 
out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened 
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending 
like a dove, and lighting upon him.” The true 
reason appears in the verses of Scripture cited 
above. He says to John, “Suffer it to be so now, 
for it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” He 
came to fulfill the law and the prophets, and he 
said that the heavens and earth shall pass away 
but not one jot nor tittle of my word shall pass un- 
til all be fulfilled. The prophets said : “The Spirit 
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wis- 
dom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of 
the Lord. And I saw, and have record that this is 
the Son of God, because I saw the spirit descend- 
ing from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon 
him.” Then there was the fulfilling of the word 
of God, which is all righteousness; then there is 
no shadow of repentance in these Scriptures, but 
the fulfilling, as he says. This act of Jesus did 
not involve any repentance at all, but involved a 
perfect fulfillment of a broken law, not requiring 
any repentance. For repentance is sorrow shown 
for the transgression of the law, and he had noth- 


52 


Strong Delusions 


ing at all to do with the transgression, there- 
fore had no cause or right to repent. In 
this comment the writer says we are not to un- 
derstand that “these three temptations cover all of 
his moral battle. All his life he was tempted. But 
these three represent the outstanding crises in the 
moral struggle of the Son of Man.” Herein is in- 
dicated a struggle to decide, or separate, to dis- 
join, or something like separation, to throw the 
bad away and keep the good. There is nothing 
like this in the temptation, for he had been pure 
and clean up to this time. God says, “Am I a man 
that I should say and not bring it to pass? I will 
bring my word to pass. Yea, before the day was 
I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of 
my hands. I will work, and who shall let it?” 
The Lord God vms in all this in bringing his word 
to pass. The commentor says: “Physical need 
and physical desire were speaking out in an over- 
whelming inrush of hunger. Now what was really 
at stake in this temptation? Jesus had reached 
an hour when He must overmaster physical de- 
sire.” The word he uses, overwhelming; the Eng- 
lish definition to this word is crushing with weight 
or number; also, physical desire. These words 
with the word intensity all convey the idea of ex- 
cess, extreme degree, as, the intensity of guilt. 
These words above mentioned convey the idea of be- 
ing overcome, or unbearable; they just convey the 
thought that is just a little beyond recovery. 
Though he says, “Thrusting aside the voice of the 
body and filling His mind with a great Old Testa- 
ment word, He resolutely held in check all the tur- 
bulent demands of physical desire.” This pic- 
ture looks almost too burdensome. This was about 


Strong Delusions 


53 


the thirtieth year of his life, and he says (the 
New York Advocate) that Jesus was tempted all 
of his life. Then we would say that he knew how 
to resist the temptations without such anguish. I 
will state that the Apostle says that when the 
temptations were ended that the Devil left him for 
a season. But we cannot go beyond the revealed 
Word of God in any discussion. There is not any 
statement of his being tempted previous to this 
time. We want to defend God’s word in all fair- 
ness. Now in these three temptations, which is 
first mentioned? God says nothing about an over- 
whelming inrush of hunger; there would be no re- 
sistance for any such condition. That is beyond 
any power whatever. Anything, of any kind, in 
earth or in the heavens ; or any power of any kind, 
spiritually, mentally or mechanically, that could 
move under the idea conveyed by the word over- 
whelmed. Therefore, the assertion is most extrav- 
agant. Then, to connect the same excessive 
thought with the principle of physical desire, how 
can any man have the brass to think of such iai 
thing, and attach it to any part of the life of the 
Son of God? The words physical desire, the way 
they are used, conveys the idea of every kind of 
wantonness and lust and envy and deception in 
the whole human family, and attaches the same to 
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is our Maker, Pre- 
server and Redeemer! Now I ask the question, 
how could Jesus have redeemed us under such 
overpowering circumstances? Then the commenter 
says that “Jesus had the subtle suggestion to 
cast himself from the temple, trusting in the 
Father’s care to preserve his life. This was an 
emotional temptation. Nerves held tense and 


54 


Strong Delusions 


rigid for days of lofty, spiritual contemplation and 
deep ecstasy of soul, now rebelled; the emotions 
became clamorous and seemed about to pass beyond 
control; he speaks of the abnormal knock at the 
door and poise about to flee away. It was the kind 
of conflict known so well to temperaments emo- 
tionally rich and nervously high-strung when in 
an hour of reaction the life confronts the danger 
of emotional undoing. Multitudes have met this 
battle, world over, both men and women. It is a 
conflict that they care not to talk about. They 
cannot analyze the strife to satisfy themselves for 
it is one of the terrible battles of life; in an hour 
when a man seems on the verge of emotional an- 
archy, when, in the sheer weakness or nervous re- 
action after a great strain nobly borne, it seems 
as if the abnormal would take command, the 
struggler feels the weight of a conflict like that 
which Jesus faced in the hour when, with a strange 
fascination, the thought of casting himself from 
the Temple entered his mind.” After using such 
words as abnormal and strange fascination , deep 
ecstasy of soul, rebelled, emotions, clamorous be- 
yond control , the door of poise, about to flee away, 
emotionally rich, nervously high-strung, an hour 
of reaction, emotional undoing, emotional an- 
archy, sheer weakness, nervous reaction, terrible 
battles of life, I wish all my readers would refer 
to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. 

At this point I will give some of the English 
definitions: Enchantment, by witchcraft; a pow- 
erful or irresistible influence on the affections of 
persons; this is the meaning of the word fascina- 
tion. The ancients speak of two kinds of fascina- 
tion; one by the look or eye, the other by words. 


Strong Delusions 


55 


Clamorous means speaking and repeating loud 
words; noisy, vociferous, loud, turbulent. Would 
anybody conceive for a moment that the blessed 
Master had the least shadow of thought, or let any 
such thing cross his mind as is conveyed by the 
word Glamorous? Let us turn to the Bible: “He 
shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be 
heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not 
break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. 
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” This 
statement of him doesn’t sound very clamorous. 
“He will not fail nor be discouraged until he hath 
set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall 
wait for his law.” Beyond control • by this state- 
ment he had lost, — gone by. This definition is to 
keep under check by a counter register or double 
account. This may be applied in a measure or in 
a sense compared to the Master. He was of two- 
fold nature; the power of the divine holding the 
human nature in check and not letting it go be- 
yond. The full sense of this statement can be 
shown by referring to the quotation in first Corinth- 
ians: “And so it is written, the first man Adam 
was made a living soul; the last Adam was made 
a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first 
which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and 
afterward that which is spiritual; the first man of 
the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from 
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that 
are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they 
also that are heavenly.” So you see that the Son of 
God was not earthy, but heavenly, the same as to 
say that he was not carnal and did not see corrup- 
tion but was all spiritual. He was not full of wounds 
and bruises and putrefying sores as we are, for he 


56 


Strong Delusions 


knew no sin. Then again: “If the children of 
Israel had obeyed the Lord ; his name should' not 
have been cut off nor destroyed before me.” He 
was divine, he was God the Father, he was the 
Almighty, the Great I Am. So you see that he 
could not have faced or undergone all the over- 
whelming ordeals that are charged in this com- 
ment. The word abnormal means irregular; an 
irregularity, deformity; not conformed to rule; 
deformed. Poise means to balance; the substance 
weighted; equilibrium; the mind may rest in a 
poise between two opinions. The command is 
“Why do ye halt between two opinions?” How 
could Jesus command us not to do a thing that he 
would do himself; or had done, according to the 
Advocate? About to flee away; no steadiness. 
We can see the idea here conveyed more easily by 
referring to the wild animal when he is attacked 
or surprised, or the bird that sinks to the ground 
to start on its flight. Emotionally rich would ap- 
ply to an expert actor, who could animate his ob- 
servers with much laughter and curiosity; keep- 
ing them in great glee. High-strung : as if to be 
held in with bridle and bit. Who ever heard of 
such stuff? And it is from the two organs of the 
Methodist Episcopal Conferences. 

Then here comes the word, reaction ; as a verb 
in transition it means to return an impulse or im- 
pression; to resist the action of another body by 
another opposite force. Everybody reacts on the 
body that impels it from its natural state. In the 
sense of the reaction of this particular tempta- 
tion, Jesus would have gone beyond right, and 
then by some power or habit would have come 
back. Emotional undoing: That reserved, an- 


Strong Delusions 


57 


nulled ; second place, ruined, destroyed ; third 
place, not done, not performed, not executed. We 
are apt to leave undone what we ought to do. 
When the legislature is corrupted the people are 
undone. In the sense of this undoing of the Sa- 
viour’s temptation, the people that he came to 
save, would have been undone and lost. Conflict: 
This word conveys into our minds in a sense; to 
strike or dash against, to meet and oppose as bod- 
ies driven by violence; as, conflicting waves or ele- 
ments. This may be with violence or any other 
way of struggling; as, the last struggle of life, 
agony, as, the conflict with death. Of course there 
is not a person, if he is permitted to consider, as 
to the conflict referred to here in Jesus’ tempta- 
tions, was anything like this word conveys. It 
does not apply to Jesus in the least, he had no such 
conflict, he never let any of the temptations come 
into his mind, as they were presented by Satan. 
And then, as I have said, how in the name of com- 
mon sense, could he have saved others, if he could 
not have saved himself? Now comes the word 
analyze; not able to separate the good from the 
bad; we become puzzled, don’t know what to do. 
Here comes the word terrible: this means to 
frighten; adapted to excite terror; dreadful; for- 
midable. Terrible battles of life. How can we 
apply them to the blessed Master, while the battle 
of right and wrong is waged against us by the en- 
emy and Satan. That is no reason that the terri- 
bleness of our lives, caused by sin, had any power 
over him. He was the Almighty God, the everlast- 
ing Father, the Prince of Peace. The only way 
that we in our depraved state of being can assume 
the question that is so divine is to say that we 


58 


Strong Delusions 


would not accept any of the temptations. Then 
again the first man Adam was made a living soul, 
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual but 
that which is natural, and afterwards that which 
is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy. 
The second man is the Lord from Heaven. As is 
the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and 
as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heav- 
enly. Now this Scripture plainly sets forth the 
idea that Jesus could not partake of nor indulge 
in earthy things in the same manner that we use 
them. He also was without corruption; he was 
not full of wounds and bruises and putrifying 
sores like we are, but he is able to bind these up 
for us and came to do it. Then we see that he 
could not think carnally as we think but spirit- 
ually. Anarchy; want of government; a state of 
society when there is no law or supreme power, or 
when the laws are not efficient and individuals do 
what they please with impunity; political confu- 
sion. The above definitions from Webster’s Dic- 
tionary of those words used give us a fair idea of 
the views that the commenter conveys of his 
thoughts of how the Lord’s temptations wrought 
on his mental powers. He says that Jesus faced 
such struggles in an hour when, with a strange 
fascination, the thought of casting himself from 
the temple entered his mind. I answer here, that 
the idea never entered his mind at all; could not 
possibly have done so ; that would have been accept- 
ing the offer, or banter, if you please. “Here, too, 
Jesus was completely victorious. He says, over- 
coming, putting aside abnormal thought, and 
quoting an Old Testament word, and filling his 


Strong Delusions 


59 


mind with its steadying thought, it was the vic- 
tor of poise in an hour of intensely overwrought 
emotion.” Yes, he says overwrought; labor to ex- 
cess. Secondly, worked all over as if covered with 
emotion; all in a fidget. The definition of these 
words combined — if it adds any strength to the ter- 
ror of the case. It would be past endurance if it 
was as represented. The whole thing would have 
been lost; earth and heaven, hinged on the life of 
Jesus. Thirdly, the temptation of the mind. 
“The commenter says the voice of the body and 
the voice of the emotions had been held in check. 
Now Jesus meets a temptation which speaks espe- 
cially through the mind. It is because men have 
minds that they can be ambitious. It is because 
men have mental power that they can dream of 
world empires, and that again and again this 
dream has crystalized into the hard and staple fab- 
ric of a great and far-reaching national life. Sud- 
denly Jesus saw a vision of a mastered world. It 
was a vision of a world held by the strength of an 
imperial mind and of commanding personal 
power. It was the wide ranging splendor of an- 
other Alexander. Jesus knew that he had the 
power to realize this dream. He knew that he 
could become ruler, one of the mighty empire 
builders of the world. But what would become 
of his mission? Who would achieve the salvation 
of man? Who would be king over hearts rescued 
from all the restlessness and stain of sin? The 
world could do without another Alexander. It 
would be hopeless without a Saviour. So the majes- 
tic picture of an unfolding ambition was put aside 
with relentless strength. The mind had gathered all 
its resources to tempt Jesus and once again He stood 


60 


Strong Delusions 


forth to conquer. Once again an Old Testament 
word formed a sword with which he could smite. 
He was stronger than physical desire. He was 
mighty to wrest victory in the subtle battles of 
the emotional life. He could not be beguiled by 
the most radiant picture of the world empire, 
which his mind could bring before him”. Then 
acknowledges that he was without sin though he 
was tempted in all points as we are. We want to 
explain some of these ideas of these two organs, as 
to this last temptation. The first and foremost 
thing that I want to ask of my readers is: Is the 
mind the devil that we have to combat with? I 
want to refer to a few words that he or they refer 
to in this third temptation. He says that Jesus 
saw a vision, something imaginary, the production 
of fancy. Is it possible that he was fanciful? He 
refers to the ambitions of men in describing the 
temptations of Jesus. This vision is the vision of 
a world held by the strength of an imperial mind, 
the same as to say that he held the world and all 
the glory of it in his mind, ruling as an emperor, 
with commanding personal power. Looked to him 
ranging widely as the splendor of another Alexan- 
der. Such awful comparisons. Compare him to 
Alexander the Great! He was a reproach and a 
terror to humanity; the love of conquest was his 
ruling passion. More than any other reason to 
gratify a senseless ambition, he made war without 
cause or provocation upon those who would gladly 
have remained in peace with him. He was justly 
entitled the “plunderer of the nations.” He made 
it his glory to encourage desolation in all places, 
and rendering himself the terror of mankind. He 
was so wicked he only lived out half his days. It 


Strong Delusions 


61 


seems a reflection on humanity to give such a man 
the title of the Great. Such comparison is away 
below all decency, if applied to any good man; 
much more when comparing the blessed Master to 
such an ungovernable despot as Alexander. It is 
said he died a glutton, could not even govern his ap- 
petite; a dog. Instead of Jesus’ thought being such, 
his righteousness is like the great mountains; his 
judgments like the great deep. O Lord, thou pre- 
serveth man and beast. How different from the 
above comparison. How excellent is thy loving 
kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men 
put their trust under the shadow of thy wing. We 
shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of 
thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the 
river of pleasure. Called him a dreamer; he said 
he had the power to realize this dream. Use the 
word realize: brought into actual being; conveyed 
into the real thing itself; impressed, received, or 
treated as a reality ; felt in its true force ; rendered 
actual, tangible or effective. You see by this word 
realize that Jesus actually accepted this world as 
an emperor along with Alexander the Great, ac- 
cording to the statement made in these papers. 
“Then referred to his knowledge as to becoming a 
great empire builder of the world.” It does seem 
that good people do sometimes make themselves 
fools by forgetting the power of the Almighty. 
Don’t anybody that ever read the Bible any at all 
know that he made the world and all that is 
therein? And saw all the kingdoms and all the 
glory of them from the beginning? And we admit 
that he was very man, yet, we must not forget to 
admit that he is very God also. Why, he knew the 
heart and thought of man while he was here, and 


62 


Strong Delusions 


could forgive sin just the same as the Father in 
heaven. How far men can get from the truth 
when they step outside the bounds. And now re- 
turns to or brings him back to his mission, and 
suggests questions as though he asked them him- 
self; what would become of his mission? Who 
would achieve the salvation of men? And who 
would rescue sin? The world could do without 
another Alexander, placing him again beside the 
great man. So he says the majestic or dignified 
likeness or resemblance w T as put aside with relent- 
less strength. Thus they, the Advocates , say, after 
full admission as I have shown by the language 
that was used by them, that he had been fully over- 
come. Relentless means unmoved by pity; unpity- 
ing; insensible to the distress of others; destitute 
of tenderness, as a prey to relentless despotism. 
This word shows to the reader of this book, that 
the idea is conveyed that he put away the majes- 
tic, elevated and lofty picture, with unpitying 
strength or with insensible feelings, to the distress 
of all others, whatever that might cause or amount 
to. Such expressions as this do not apply to Jesus 
in the least sense of such an argument, for he 
could not have seen any such thing as those cursed 
pictures or heathen-like gods as is set forth in the 
comment, in any of his temptations. For that 
would have been fatal. “The mind had gathered 
all its resources to tempt Jesus. Once again he 
stood forth the conquerer.” Think of the mind of 
man, much less the mind of Jesus, tempting us. 
These Advocates leave out the Devil entirely, and 
attribute all to the mind’s temptations. First, the 
physical desire or temptations of the body. Sec- 
ond, the temptations of the emotions. Third, the 


Strong Delusions 


63 


temptations of the mind. These three properties, 
or at least the first and last named, are a part of 
the mechanism of man. By leaving out the truth 
of the temptations of Jesus it is all muckled to- 
gether so that no man can straighten the sense of 
it. His temptations were on this wise. Then was 
Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be 
tempted of the Devil. And when he had fasted forty 
days and nights he was afterwards anhungered. 
And when the tempter came to him he said, if thou 
be the Son of Hod command that these stones be 
made bread. But he answered and said it is writ- 
ten thou shalt not live by bread alone but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 
Now you will notice that there are two distinct 
persons in this controversy talking and answering 
to and fro, one reverse from the other. It does 
not sound like the comment published in the Chris- 
tian Advocate , one talking to himself and strug- 
ling with his own body and mind. Secondly, then 
the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and 
setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple, and 
saying unto him : If thou be the Son of God cast 
thyself down ; for it is written, he shall give his an- 
gels charge concerning thee, and in their hands 
they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou 
dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto 
him : It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God. This sounds like two persons talk- 
ing together again. Again the Devil taketh him 
up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 
him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of 
them, and saith unto him: All these will I give 
thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then 
saith Jesus unto him : Get thee hence, Satan. For 


64 


Strong Delusions 


it is written, thou skalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and him only shalt thou serve. Then the Devil 
leaveth him, and, behold, angels come and minis- 
ter unto him. These were three trials or tempta- 
tions for Jesus. Facing the Devil, and it plainly 
states that Satan taketk him, showing that they 
went from one place on to another and so on, and 
showing, too, that the Devil made different presen- 
tations, using the doubtful suggestion by approach- 
ing with the Word, as if in the first two instances, 
trying to induce him to prove his Sonship ; the Devil 
and Satan knowing him to be the Son. He show- 
ing his deception with subtilty and all the inge- 
nuity and dramatic performance that he, Satan, 
could invent; bringing to bear all the glory that 
could be obtained in doing, was in what he pre- 
sented before the Son of Man. These being the most 
fascinating and delusive and tempting points that 
the Devil could perpetrate and present before him, 
he knowing him to be the Son of God. The Devil 
and Satan also knew that Jesus was the creator 
and maker of all things, and his prime object was 
to get him as a man to sin, then he would have ob- 
tained the overthrow of heaven, the thing that he 
had previously sought to do, and failing was cast 
out to earth, where he is trying in this instance to 
accomplish the same thing. Knowing that Jesus 
was the Son of God; and in the third account the 
assumption of the ownership of all the kingdoms of 
the world and the glory of them, and knowing they 
were not his to give. He knew that Jesus was Christ, 
for later he would cry out and say: I know thee 
who thou art ; thou art the Son of God. I want to 
emphasize the freewill power or agency that man is 
possessed with, and that embodies a most impor- 


Strong Delusions 


65 


tant part of natural formation; the part wherein 
hangs all the glory, or punishment that he attains 
either by realization through the mind or by ac- 
tual experience. This great power Jesus was 
doubly possessed with, and he chose right and 
looked right straight forward and did not so much 
as look toward these things presented, having full 
control over his mind and entire rule or control of 
his body. This is the sense or the full idea of our 
living a Christian life, having full control over our 
bodies in and through the power of Jesus, accord- 
ing to our choice. To explain more fully this free- 
will power or choice, suppose your neighbor comes 
to your home with a good horse and presents him 
for sale. If you choose you can buy that horse, he 
being a good one; it being his choice also to sell 
him; so you see that it is left to your own choice 
to buy or you would not be a free man. Further, 
if the price did not suit you then you would not 
give it for the horse; hence, your own choice again. 
This is certainly very plain to any one, if we will 
be fair. Then everything that we do is according 
to our choice, as soon as we are capable of the 
age of choice. Then if Jesus presents life to you 
it is in your power to accept it if you will, or it is 
in your power to reject, which are you going to 
do? So then life and death are presented to you, 
which are you going to choose: life and live here 
and evermore or death and die eternally? Grod has 
given us our own choice. Here I refer again to 
this comment on the Sunday School lesson as to 
the temptations of Jesus published by the organs 
of the M. E. Church, this great Christian Organiza- 
tion, or to advance the work of this heavenly king- 
dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The 


5 


66 


Strong Delusions 


very idea of such contemptible, reproachful, de- 
moralizing church literature sent out broadcast to 
thousands of families to be read and fill their 
minds with such rottenness, crystalizing depravity 
in their hearts and establishing wantonness in 
their whole bodies. This rotten stuff gotten up 
by the brainiest men that are at the head of the 
church, making it very much worse. Sent out to be 
read for the truth by their leaders to thousands of 
people who depend on it for guidance. Jesus be- 
ing charged of accepting such temptations as have 
been set forth. How do they expect these poor un- 
Bible-read folks to escape being ensnared by this 
trap? The effect is like a cyclone that starts up in 
New York and rages in every direction passing 
down into North Carolina, gains new power and 
sweeps the whole land, to destroy truth and lay it 
flat. Or like a sweeping rain which leaveth no 
food. And like a great cloud of wind without 
rain. It has made its noise of great rattling and 
clamorously rages trying to show such unfounded 
erroneous and fictitious and falsifying absurdities. 
The English language does not contain words to 
convey the amount of the damage of such publica- 
tions. Time will not reveal. Nothing this side of 
eternity can tell, and doubtless that will be too 
late, for all who are deluded by such atrocious 
stuff. I do not remember ever seeing anything in 
print from any source that equals this published 
by these two church organs. These are the most re- 
proachful accusation that I ever saw or heard 
spoken against the Son of Man, if we consider the 
responsibility of the Church of Christ. I have read 
some of the erroneous things that the notable infidel 
Ingersoll said. Also of the crafty things that Buel 


Strong Delusions 


67 


published against the Word of God, which were 
written so smooth that it takes an expert to detect 
some of his sneaking slurs. Yet they were 
more modest in the language they used in con- 
demning the truth than these two church 
organs. They used more reason and common 
sense. For in denouncing the Word of God 
they wanted to have their argument believable; 
so much so that they kept themselves in better 
bounds, seeking the more popular opinion. But 
this comment in the Christian Advocate is the 
most devilized, devil-deluded and the most hell- 
rotten of any published article that I have ever 
read or seen. And to make it more obnoxious and 
wicked, it being published by the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church organ. Will the preachers of this 
great church just swallow such accursed doctrine 
as this and never raise a hand or voice against 
this infamous, incorrect conception published by 
their church paper. Jesus’ life was just as pure as 
the truth in its most sublime light. It was not a 
life of penitence, for there is no repentance re- 
quired when there is no transgression of sin com- 
mitted. His life was not a life of unreality, and 
we should not admit any such statement, but just 
reject or denounce it. His life did not involve any 
such thing as radical repentance, for any such 
thing would have been acknowledging com- 
plicity in the crimes of others. Or in other words 
he would have shown weakness, or to some extent 
aiding crime of a tumultuous sin. He was not 
guilty that any such thing should apply to him. 
God is not a man that should lie; neither the son 
of man that he should repent. Hath he said and 
shall he not do it, or hath he not spoken and shall 


68 


Strong Delusions 


he not make it good? For he is like a refiner’s fire, 
and like fuller’s soap. And he shall sit as a refiner, 
a purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of 
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they 
offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. 
For the gifts and calling of God are without re- 
pentance. But the wisdom that is from above is 
first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be en- 
treated, full of mercy and good fruits; without 
partiality and without hypocrisy. The life of 
Jesus was more like a moral battle in an effort to 
teach people the true principles of the truth than 
any other statement in this comment, but entirely 
by word and reason; and not by clubs or bow or 
any violent force; but he fought his battles with 
the sword of truth, which was very cutting and 
sharp, is very admissive, but not a struggle be- 
tween life and death, as is very suggestive in the 
publication of the paper above referred to. His 
life was not an outstanding crisis by any means. 
We are ready to admit that he came to make a 
change in the world, and in the whole plan of wor- 
ship and to set up a new kingdom ; but not in the 
sense that it is used in this comment in the Advo- 
cate; the change was to fulfill the law and to pur- 
ify the sons of Levi, and not change or cleanse 
himself, for he was pure and holy. The life of 
Jesus was not an overwhelming inrush of hunger; 
and when the forty days were ended he afterward 
hungered. The statement is just simply hungered, 
seemingly his body needed refreshing from fast- 
ing. No such thing as overwhelming could have 
been possible with the Son of God. Jesus’ life did 
not consist on bread alone nor by physical necessi- 
ties, as indicated by this awful expression of hun- 


Strong Delusions 


69 


ger. But he said unto his disciples on one occa- 
sion that I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 
Jesus saith unto them my meat is to do the will of 
him that sent me, and to finish his work. Jesus 
had to reach and come to an hour when he had to 
master physical desire. It is folly of the most 
sickening kind to one to think of such stuff, such 
rot as this to present to any intelligent people liv- 
ing, and a whole lot of this people say that we are 
so wise. One Sunday School superintendent of a 
M. E. Church asked me in a very reproachful way, 
if I thought that the church of today would in the 
least tolerate the life that Jacob lived as to his 
righteousness. I told him that they tolerated the 
lives of men thousands of times worse than Jacob 
ever was, and put their arms around them and say 
they are good. He did not have to prove that he 
was stronger than the body, nor did he have to 
prove or vindicate that he was king over his own 
flesh. Physical desire had not rule over him at 
any time; there was no lust about him; such a 
thought could not enter his pure mind. Jesus was 
more than man, he was very God. Then why do 
we look upon the God that made us with such 
fickle or false light. Insistent hunger and all the 
mad voices, if there is any such thing in the body, 
cries in men’s lives, should make such struggles 
between life and death in the human family. Why 
should it apply to his life or unto any of the temp- 
tations, for his life was without spot and blame- 
less. This struggle that is mentioned might be ap- 
plied to the human family, for it does not apply to 
him in the least, for he had no change to make, 
temporally or spiritually, while he was here on 
earth by repentance or any other way. Then we 


70 


Strong Delusions 


would say that it all does as far as struggling is 
concerned belong to the human family, in the 
change from death unto life spiritually, for this 
change involves much repentance because we are 
guilty of sin; and where the struggle comes in is 
this old body of sin and carnality must die, and let 
the new man in Christ Jesus live. So you readily 
see that this old nature does not want to die and 
be survived by the new creature in Christ Jesus. 
Then, because you can see that he has divine 
strength, for he is God the Father, he had power 
not to accept the temptations of the Devil and 
Satan. Then he will and can help us to re- 
ject the temptations in like manner as he 
did. Now it plainly appears that Jesus did not 
have to undergo any such death struggle as has 
been described in this book by leading comment- 
ers. Jesus had not been contaminated, or fell 
from life unto death, therefore had no such work 
to perform. Jesus did not have to thrust aside 
the voice of the body in order to fill his mind with 
a great Old Testament word, for he is and was the 
Word himself, he already had these turbulent 
physical desires in check. Never did any subtle 
thought or suggestion, in any way enter his mind, 
to cast himself down from the temple, trusting his 
father to preserve his life. He says “the Father 
and I are one,” therefore he is the Father himself. 
If you have seen me you have also seen the Father. 
His nerves never held lofty spiritual contemplation 
for days tense and rigid, no more than did his 
Father, who is in heaven, for he was here as a rep- 
resentative of the Father. The soul of Jesus did 
not rebel against this deep ecstacy of mind. It 
would be most absurd to suppose that Jesus could 


Strong Delusions 


71 


have seen any joy, or any degree of delight that 
arrest the whole mind in the subtle suggestion. 
Jesus never faced any struggle like men and wo- 
men face in this life of abnormal strains in times 
of reaction of nerves or mind after such battles 
have been fought, that are so common to them. He 
shall not cry, nor lift up nor cause his voice to be 
heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not 
break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. 
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He did 
not put himself in the place of a magistrate to set- 
tle disputes of any kind, nor did he break in on 
any one at any time in an affray, nor did he at any 
time make himself the divider of estates or a set- 
tler of general disputes. That was not any part of 
his mission. Surely it is most absurd to say or 
think that Jesus ever let such a thought of a 
strange fascination enter his mind of casting him- 
self down from the temple. He was foreign or en- 
tirely absent from any such thing. He had no 
mutinous nerves; he had no abnormal thought to 
put aside. Such things would be considered in 
any person of today as being worse than extrava- 
gant, He never paused at any time or in any place 
to consider what to do. His emotions were never 
intensely overwrought; for that would have shown 
less than good common sense or reason, to the dis- 
credit of any enlightened human being; so much 
more to the discredit of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
He had no voice of the body, and if he had he did 
not allow it to speak much more having anything 
like battle with it. The emotions had no voice that 
he had to hold in check, they did not have to be held 
with bridle and bits. The mind could not accept 
a temptation much less speak through it. We 


72 


Strong Delusions 


can’t think of the ambitions of men’s minds enter- 
ing into the Saviour Jesus Christ’s, or the mental 
power that he could dream of world empire, nor 
his dream crystalize into any fabric, great or 
small, far or near, reaching in any kind of life. 
Neither was Jesus ever surprised by any sudden 
vision that he saw of a mastered world. It does 
seem the most foolish thing that a man could 
think of to say such a thing about the God of 
heaven, as to try to master a world that he made. 
He in fact never has any vision of a world held by 
the strength of an imperial mind; nor any such 
thing as commanding personal power. The talk 
about Jesus Christ thinking of comparing his life 
to the wide ranging splendor that King Alexander 
had, and try to imitate him. Just think of any 
one that would say that Jesus knew he had the 
power to realize this dream. Such folly was never 
heard of. Could not be worse inside of what is 
considered civil. Then to make matters worse to 
say that Jesus knew that he could become a great 
world ruler and a mighty empire builder of the 
world. And one of the company said unto him: 
Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the in- 
heritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, 
who made me a judge or divider over you? And 
he said unto him : Take heed and beware 
of covetousness. We plainly see by his an- 
swer to these two brothers that he came to do 
what he was sent to do, and not to rule the peo- 
ple or any part of them as a king or in any other 
worldly way. Further, he would not covet the 
things of this world by any means. If he had let 
himself covet them the whole kingdom would have 
fallen. Then to say that he would have asked 


Strong Delusions 


73 


himself what would have become of his mission? 
Who would achieve the saving of man? And if I 
were to accept wordly empires who would take my 
place and set up the kingdom of heaven here on 
the earth, to rescue men from sin and eternal de- 
destruction? He suggests that the world could 
do without another Alexander; also says to him- 
self that it would be lost without a Saviour. There 
was ne^er a more absurd statement perpetrated 
than to say that Jesus ever possessed a majestic 
picture of any such thing as unfolding ambi- 
tion, that he had relentless strength to put aside. 
Jesus’ pure mind could not gather resources of a 
tempting kind, for God cannot be tempted with 
sin. He always conquered by not accepting any- 
thing presented to him by the enemy; his mind 
was not an enemy to him. A man’s mind is one of 
the greatest faculties that man has been blest 
with. If we use our minds in a good and lawful 
way it is our best friend. And without the mind 
we are no more than an animal. Since he was 
stronger than physical desire he did not let such 
thing come near him. He was already master 
over himself, and gives us power to control our 
bodies. The battle did not come near him; the 
emotion life alluded to did not have anything to 
do with him; he had none of these feelings that 
are set forth by the Advocate. Then for any sane 
man to wind up with any such comment as is in 
the Western North Carolina Christian Advocate 
about the temptation of Jesus after his baptism, 
by saying that his mind brought radiant pictures 
of world empires before him, this lowers the Son 
of God down on a level with the unscrupulous 
characters of the politician, who seeks fame of the 


74 


Strong Delusions 


world in any shrewd or cunning way by which it 
may be obtained, and is the most erroneous, irreg- 
ular and wandering accusation that any man or 
set of men could perpetrate against any one in the 
right course; much less in the life of the Son of 
Man and God. Such disconsolate doctrine will 
find itself numbered with those that are without. 
For there are dogs and sorcerers and whoremon- 
gers and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever 
loveth and rnaketh a lie. These mentioned that 
are without, are without doubt the recipients of 
eternal burning, where the worm never dies and 
the fire is not quenched. Those Scripture truths 
above cover all idolaters, that cover all the king- 
doms of the world. And in view of all the de- 
graded and debauched slums and mixtures of all 
cities and dominions of the world after the good 
have been separated; all the bad will be cast into 
the lake of fire and brimstone, to develop what they 
have been practicing here in this world, which 
doubtless will be no mitigation to their pain, but 
will add to the intensity of their sufferings. The 
change, in the sentiment of the comment made by 
the Christian Advocate of the temptations of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, is not half radical enough. The 
human mind cannot conceive the wisdom that 
would transform the low estimate of the life of 
Jesus, perpetrated by these two papers in publish- 
ing such absurdities and scandals. It is as much 
below the character of Jesus as the earth is below 
the heaven of heavens. You may talk to people, 
take them one by one as you meet them on the 
streets of the city, or in any other line of life, and 
there is not one man or person in one hundred that 
reads the Bible for himself, or to an extent suffi- 


Strong Delusions 


75 


cient to know what the teachings thereof are, that 
will not accept all this spurious doctrine for the 
truth, and will argue for all their lives to justify 
their belief or what they think. The teachings of 
the people as a whole done by the leaders of today, 
including so much unbelief, shows the complete 
fulfillment of the declaration made by the Apostle 
Paul, that God will send strong delusion on all un- 
believers, that for this cause they might believe a 
lie; that they all might be damned who believed 
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 
And as I have said I cannot conceive stronger de- 
lusion than such doctrine as is condemned by the 
writing of this book and all the perpetrators 
thereof. This day and time must be a fulfillment 
of the prophecy of David in the sixty-ninth Psalm. 
He says : Save me, O God, for the waters are come 
in unto my soul. The waters here are people. 
Rev. 17 :15. “And he saith unto me, the waters 
which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth are 
people and multitudes and nations and tongues.” 
I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing. 
I am come into deep waters where the floods over- 
flow me. They that hate me without a cause are 
more than the hairs of mine head ; they that would 
destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are 
mighty; then I restored that which I took not 
away. Now he prays for the righteous and says: 
Let not them that wait on thee, for my sake; let 
not those that seek thee be confounded for my 
sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I 
have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. 
I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an 
alien unto my mother’s children. This prophecy 
shows what he said of his brethren when he said 


76 


Strong Delusions 


neither did his brethren believe on him. For the 
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the re- 
proaches of them that reproached me hath fallen 
upon me. When I wept and chastened my soul 
with fastings that was to my reproach. I made 
sack cloth also my garment, and I became a prov- 
erb to them. They that sit in the gate speak 
against me, and I was the song of the drunkards. 
Now he begs the father to hear his prayer in the 
multitude of his tender mercies ; and not hide his 
face from him in time of trouble, and hear him 
soon. Come near me and redeem my soul, deliver 
me from mine enemies. Thou hast known or fore- 
seen my reproach and shame and my dishonor. 
Mine adversities are all before thee. Reproach hath 
broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and 
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none ; 
and for comforters, but I found none. They gave 
me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave 
me vinegar to drink. Therefore God, for all this 
treatment, and envy and outrage towards his Son, 
pronounces an awful curse upon such as does 
these reproachful things to him, and says : Let 
their table become a snare before them, and that 
which should have been for their welfare, let it be- 
come a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they 
see not, and make their loins continually to shake. 
Pour out thine indigination upon them, and let 
thine wrathful anger take hold upon them. I wish 
that I could picture the idea of some of these 
curses so that all could realize the true sense of 
them. Blinded so we cannot see, groping in dark- 
ness all ; and think of one’s loins shaking like tear- 
ing asunder; such things could not be endured. 
And everything we have becomes a trap and a 


Strong Delusions 


77 


snare and a curse. O, how dreadful. And the in- 
dignation of God and his wrathful anger to take 
hold on us; there is nothing that can convey the 
true meaning of such statements of God concern- 
ing his enemies but the eternal destruction in hell 
fire and brimstone. Let their habitation be deso- 
late and let none dwell in their tents. What wounds 
one’s feelings, or hurts in this life more than the 
desolation of our habitation? Let it be swept away 
by a storm or in any destructive way. How sad, 
how melancholy ! Then turn to the other side and 
view the place of our habitation, every human 
being swept away. How dreadful! What sorrow 
and anguish! Who can tell? For they persecute 
him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the 
grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Then he 
adds iniquity unto their iniquity ; and let not them 
come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted 
out of the book of the living, and not be written 
with the righteous. These judgments named are 
to come upon those that betray the Master in this 
life. God says if he does thus unto the green tree, 
what will be done to the dry. But I am poor and 
sorrowful; let thy salvation, O God, set me on 
high. I will praise the name of the Lord with a 
song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 
Such sacrifice as a broken heart and a contrite 
spirit please the Lord more than an ox or a bullock 
that hath horns and hoofs. Seeing that God is 
well pleased with his son, and he was smitten and 
bruised for our transgressions, let us take heed 
what we do and say; sure we dare not disobey his 
command in adding to or taking from his word, 
lest he take our part of life that is written in his 
word from us ; or add unto us the plagues that are 


78 


Strong Delusions 


written therein. Again as to his indignation being 
poured out on his enemies; and his wrathful anger 
to take hold of them. To explain more fully, I 
will refer to God’s judgment upon the Ammonites 
for their insult to King David’s messengers of 
peace that he sent to comfort the King of Ammon 
concerning a kindness that had been done unto 
King David by the King of Ammon, King Hanun’s 
father. In revenge he, King David, brought forth 
the people that were in the city, and put them un- 
der saws, and under harrows of iron, and under 
axes of iron, and made them pass through the 
brick kiln, and thus did he to all the cities of the 
children of Ammon. We readily see by the above 
how God’s judgments come down upon his enemies 
in his wrathful anger; executed by his servant 
David. Without mercy he sawed the people asun- 
der with saws and dragged them to death under 
harrows of iron. From the statement it appears 
that he may have hitched horses to these great har- 
rows, and dragged these people to the horrible 
death, of such wrath indescribable; and cut and 
hewed them with axes, and he made them pass 
through the brick kiln. This seems to signify the 
burning kiln. So you see without mercy the death 
cry of these heathen went up in agony without be- 
ing heard ; being massacred with saws, harrows and 
axes and thus were all these cities destroyed. This 
horrible judgment was to avenge his people of the 
insult of the Ammonites, done to the peole of God. 
Now if God will do thus to a people, for reproaching 
his children, what do you suppose he will do to a 
people for curses and mockings and reproaches, 
lying blasphemies, done unto his Son Jesus Christ. 
Such destruction as the limitless God can put 
upon the wicked will be enough. 


Strong Delusions 


79 


CHAPTER XI. 

The Church of 1912. 

SOME NOTES ON ITS POLICY OF SELF-RULE. 

The Church of A. D. 1912, seems to be thor- 
oughly organized and run on the same principles 
of all other organized institutions, such as state, 
county and all municipal organizations ; which 
seems to have formed, or crystalized into a hard 
and stable fabric, looking forward to achieve great 
rule and authority; undemocratic, such as the few 
ruling the many; leaving off much of the tender, 
loving mercies of the Christian attributes that con- 
stitute the Kingdom of Heaven, set up on earth by 
Jesus Christ, to dominate the whole human fam- 
ily in love exclusively. But to the contrary, the 
church of Christ’s Kingdom, or so-called, by the 
people, is divided and subdivided, more than 
six hundred times, only for the universal pur- 
pose of ruling power, or for the exclusive purpose 
of dominion. This situation is brought about 
by a few men that want to be honored, by 
the many or the masses ; and by some decep- 
tion, or contrary views of the Word of God. They 
begin to advocate what they call their rights, 
and preach their views and build up a creed of 
their own fallacious doctrine; thus leading unin- 
formed men and women off from the truth, in 
many ways amounting to delusion, and once by 
starting and spreading their views in various 
ways, and by various literature, their disciples 
decline to go to hear the teaching of any doctrine 
except their own creed, thus establishing their be- 
lief so that they search out the Scriptures that 


80 


Strong Delusions 


justify their belief; whether it applies or not in a 
divine sentiment. Each denomination has its own 
ruling power and its own subordinates, seemingly 
not for their good, but for the greed or for avar- 
ice, for the insatiable desire of gain, obtained from 
the multitudes held by their control or influence. 
The exceptions to this rule are few and far apart. 
To show my authority for my statement I was in 
the Sunday School Class Number 1, and the pas- 
tor having started an evangelical revival, after 
the class was seated the pastor rushed into the 
room and impressed upon the class with much 
power the necessity of a strong contribution, to 
keep down embarassment, and suggested twenty- 
five cents apiece, or more, and he was going be- 
fore all the classes pushing the same claim. This 
being about the first collection of the meeting or 
among the first, there was a large amount of 
money raised for the evangelist and after the meet- 
ing was closed I was in the same class, in all, five 
Sundays, and the Bible was not taught at all- 
While the opening service was going on, there 
were several of the leading members of that 
church and leaders of that class, gathered around 
the fire in their rooms and discussed every phase 
of business carried on in the city and around in 
the country, and passed judgment on the different 
classes of people as to their dishonesty, seemingly 
the dishonest dealing all coming toward them- 
selves. This was done more than one time, on the 
Sabbath morning, while the Sunday School opening 
service was going on. This occurred on the first 
Sunday following the revival, by the socalled 
workers of the church in the revival. The doc- 
trine taught was to this end: Mr. Ireland, of 


Strong Delusions 


81 


Greensboro, was the teacher, and in teaching the 
first advent of the Son of God, he referred to the 
greatness of ancient Demosthenes, the orator, and 
to Alexander the Great, and said that God raised 
up these nations of Rome, the Persians, the Greeks, 
the Chaldeans to the highest architectural state of 
existence that ever had been in the world, bring- 
ing them through the fire, signifying that he 
melted these heathens and worked them over and 
made them very glorious; he said, with weeping 
exclamation, for the glorious Son of God to come 
in. This teaching and clamorous debating of all 
kinds of business took place at the house of God 
for worship, on the holy Sabbath at the close of a 
revival held in the same church, that was called a 
great success. Furthermore, the teaching contin- 
ued, he taught that people read the Bible in the 
olden times, under the old dispensation; he said 
that Moses read the Bible. To correct this error 
I will say the first of God’s revelation was given 
to Moses, and I think he must have not read very 
far into the great book. He, Mr. Ireland, further 
taught that God’s purpose in scattering the chil- 
dren of Israel was to spread the gospel among 
the heathens, this being before the gospel was in- 
stituted. He also taught that the wise men of the 
East that followed the Star to Bethlehem were of 
the heathens, perhaps of the Medes or Persians or 
from Egypt. I will say that God has not revealed 
unto us definitely who they were; the nearest or 
plainest statement is in Jeremiah 50:5-6, as fol- 
lows: “In those days, and in that time, saith 
the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they 
and the children of Judah together, going and 
weeping; they shall go and seek the Lord their 


6 


82 


Strong Delusions 


God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their 
faces thitherward, saying, come, and let us join 
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that 
shall not be forgotten.” He refers to the greatness 
of his name among the Gentiles, and the purposes 
of the incense offered in his name. Behold the 
days have come, saith the Lord, that I will make a 
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with 
the house of Judah. These Scriptures refer di- 
rectly to the house of Israel and to the house of 
Judah, by a positive statement. And further, God 
says he came unto his own. The heathen were not 
his people and they were not among the wise men. 
Then in teaching the second coming of Jesus, he 
said that the whole world would be converted to 
God, and then he will come — the exact opposite to 
what Jesus taught when he was here. Jesus said 
that it would be as it was in the days of Noah; the 
people did eat, they drank, they married wives, 
they were giving in marriage, until the day that 
Noah entered into the Ark, and the flood came and 
destroyed them all. Likewise, also as it was in 
the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they 
bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but 
the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed 
them all. Even thus it shall be in the day when 
the Son of Man is revealed. In a conference with 
the pastor, E. K. McLarty, I related all these 
things, and he only smiled, the same as to say that 
makes no difference, or, it is only common. I sug- 
gested that he would give out an appointment for 
a meeting, and himself be present with a few, and 
I would teach them the Bible. But he said that 
he did not have time to do anything like that, for 


Strong Delusions 


83 


his pastorship just ran him to death; he had so 
much work that he did not get to his study for one 
whole week. He advised me to go around and see 
a few men, individually, and get them together 
and teach them, and be my own boss, you see, sug- 
gesting teaching at my own house, or anywhere, 
say on the streets, or in a manger, or any old place. 
Well, that is good enough for me, I well know, for 
it was good enough for my blessed Lord and Mas- 
ter, for he was in the wilderness with the wild 
beasts of the forest for forty days, and then he was 
born in the manger with the same beasts. Very 
sure the bossism comes in; surely it makes no dif- 
ference about what is taught so there is a fine suit 
of clothes on, and of course, a few thousand dol- 
lars, notwithstanding how we get it — that’s all the 
go whether we have any grace or not. Yes, and 
give liberally, regardless of the knowledge of the 
truth and grace revealed, by the Lord God of 
heaven. Under the present church rule he can 
stand up and teach in church or in Sunday School, 
and he is a mighty person in that organization. 
The whole of the churches have, to a great extent, 
lost all sight of the true idea of being great in the 
sight of God. They are dominated by just a few, 
and seeking more and more exclusive rule. Not 
everyone that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter the 
Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
my Father which is in Heaven. The leading of the 
Holy Spirit is a very wonderful thing; who can 
understand or who can tell the truth only by the 
teaching of the spirit? The Holy Spirit never has 
led any man to separate himself from the church 
of Christ, and set up another branch of worship, 
in the name of Jesus ; but to the opposite — it leads 


84 


Strong Delusions 


to a oneness in the spirit. Holy Father, keep 
through thine own name those whom thou hast 
given me, that they may be one, as we are. And 
the Son of God did not pray for his disciples only, 
that he ordained while he was here on earth, but 
for them also which shall believe on him through 
their word: That they all may be one, as thou 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us. That the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou 
gavest me I have given them; doubtless this glory 
is the union of the spirit, making us all of one 
mind. That they may be one, even as we are one; 
I in them and thou in me, that they may be made 
perfect in one. This teaching of the Son of God 
shows clearly that the strength of the Kingdom of 
Heaven depends on the union of the spirit. He ex- 
pressly states that a house divided against itself 
cannot stand. Hence this bossism, among the 
churches by many divisions, will not stand, but 
will come to an end. Every new belief, whether it 
be by a single individual, or by a multitude, is a 
false teacher; doubtless these are they referred to 
in these last days, because there cannot be any new 
fangled doctrine, except it contradict the Bible — 
and thus falsify the word. These divisions in this 
Kingdom will come to an end, for the true King- 
dom of Christ will finally dominate all the King- 
doms of this world — the mineral, the vegetable 
kingdom, the animal kingdom, the educational 
kingdoms — all these anti-religious fads and fash- 
ions and all fascinating doctrines that are gotten 
up by the cunning deception of all unbelievers 
will come to an end, and the Kingdom of Heaven 
will be established here on earth, which will be 


Strong Delusions 


85 


more fully explained in this volume. The Bible is 
so plain that the wayfaring man, though he be a 
fool, need not err therein. Now let us see if we 
can understand this statement. Yes, it is just 
this — read the Bible, and believe just what God 
says, for it is He that is talking, and then tell all 
that we can remember of it, not diminishing aught 
from it, and not adding anything to it, and it will 
be plain; just walking in the straight and narrow 
way. And this is what God enjoins upon every 
one of us : He says teach this law and his statutes. 
Sitting by the fireside, and as you lie down, and as 
you rise up, and as you go out and by the wayside, 
and as you come in, thus covering the whole time 
of one’s life. See how few are doing this Com- 
mandment; and then so many are sowing broad- 
cast such showers of the seed of the tares. I won- 
der whether there will be any wheat to put into the 
great barn for the Master when he comes. And if 
we have not been doing his command. How shall 
we be able to stand when he comes. And if the 
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the un- 
godly and the sinner appear. For if they do these 
things in a green tree, what shall be done in the 
dry. Or in other words, if the Son of Man suffered 
such agonies on the cross; when his life was so 
pure and faultless, what will be done unto us, if 
we fail to do God’s will? How can it be described 
when Jesus marvels at it? Behold, the righteous 
shall be recompensed in the earth: much more 
than the wicked and the sinner. 


86 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XII. 

Jacob’s Wickedness. 

NOTES ON A SERMON BY MR. BOOTH. 

Satan gets in liis work in every conceivable way, 
and with all the ingenuity that wit and brains 
can perpetrate. It behooves us to be armed and 
equipped with the weapons that are furnished us 
by Him who is able to conquer and to destroy. We 
see these Satanic schemes worked by him, in some 
of the most talented men of the day, and age; or 
work of delusion if you want to call it; perhaps a 
more appropriate name for this day and time. He 
transforms or darkens council ; beclouds our minds 
when we are reading the Word of God; and shuts 
out the light so we walk in obscurity, failing to ob- 
tain the truth as it is set forth in its simplicity 
and plainness. Let us read the Word carefully 
and prayerfully, letting the Holy Spirit lead us, 
so we will get the divine sentiment, or the essence 
of God’s truths, that he has revealed unto us. 
Satan does not only get his ends accomplished in 
and through evil, but in every instance he possibly 
can. He works through the leading or most influ- 
ential men of our day, even those that are out 
seemingly for good, such as Mr. Booth, when he 
preached our Father Jacob’s funeral at West Mar- 
ket Street Church, January 31, 1912, when he gave 
such a vivid account of the meanness and deception 
practiced during the former years, as he said, of 
his life, embracing the time from the date he ob- 
tained the blessing from Isaac that Esau was ex- 
pecting to get. He then, going to Padanaram, di- 


Strong Delusions 


87 


rected by bis father, to take him a wife ; after serv- 
ing fourteen years for them, he then returned back 
to his own country, this embracing the time of 
about twenty years. These accusations of Mr. 
Booth cover all manner of sins and meanness. “He 
said that there are many things in Jacob’s life, in 
his early history, that neither commend themselves 
to us or to God, but the Bible is true to its charac- 
ters. We find in it the loving Father, and the 
avenging God, the beauties of heaven and the gates 
of hell. It is in no way partial. We get a view 
of the whole subject, of the whole man. In the 
biography the faults and blots are all kept out, and 
we see only the best side of the character. But in 
the Bible we see the shadow as well as the gleam 
of light, Mr. Booth said.” We are going to agree 
with Mr. Booth that the Bible is true to its char- 
acters, it gives the whole truth in every revelation. 
Now we will read the whole story of Jacob’s life 
and we will find that it is clean, there being no 
charge brought against him in God’s word, except 
what his father Isaac said to Esau, when he came 
with his savory meat, for his father Isaac to eat, so 
he would bless Esau. He said thy brother hath 
come with subtilty and has taken away thy bless- 
ing. I say that this is the only charge or intima- 
tion of a charge, which can be found in the Bible, 
against his individual life. Mr. Booth said there 
were many things in the early history of his life, 
and said the first mistake Jacob made was in try- 
ing to buy something for nothing, something that 
God said a man must not buy, the inalienable gift 
of birthright. In the first of the above statements 
Mr. Booth said “trying to buy.” I say he did buy, 
he closed a trade with an oath that was unchange- 


88 


Strong Delusions 


able, for it stood forever. He further states that 
God said a man must not buy the inalienable gift 
of birthright. I have searched the Bible through, 
and there is no such statement in the Word of God 
anywhere, but to the contrary. God says in his 
charge to the priest, as pertaining to eating the 
holy thing, that a stranger nor a hired servant 
shall not eat of the holy thing. But if the priest 
buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and 
he that is born in his house, they shall eat of his 
meat. This scripture clearly shows that it was 
lawful and right not only to buy the birthright, 
but to buy the whole man, soul and body, and not 
only was it right, but it made him of a higher stand- 
ard of character. Again God says buy the truth, 
and sell it not; also wisdom and instruction, and 
understanding. Again, buy of me gold tried in 
the fire, as I counsel thee. Then again, go down 
and buy that we may sustain life. The divine sen- 
timent in this transaction was all in Jacob’s favor 
and against Esau; the statement being that Esau 
despised his birthright, and afterwards sought for- 
giveness with much weeping, and many tears, and 
found none. Mr. Booth said he tried to buy some- 
thing for nothing. Let us see as to that. And 
Esau said to Jacob, a feed me, I pray thee, with 
that same read pottage, for I am faint. Therefore 
was his name called Edom.” Esau in his request 
plainly shows that Jacob had been feeding him 
previously. Jacob asked him for his board, and 
he having nothing to pay, for there is no account 
of his having made any money up to that time, Ja- 
cob suggested that he could sell him his birthright, 
and he did so, for he said, what good will it do me, 
and he swore, for he said I am going to die. In 


Strong Delusions 


89 


consideration of what Esau was at that time, ow- 
ing to Jacob, and Esau’s statement that he was go- 
ing to die, I think Jacob paid a rousing price, for 
a man will give all he hath for his life. 

That is Esau’s case. Now Mr. Booth contra- 
dicts his own argument by saying: “If you have 
ever been down in the underworld as I have been 
trying to help men turn from their sins and come 
back to God, you have found many Esaus who will 
sell the birthright of honor, virtue, liberty and 
conscience, and yet these are among the inalien- 
able birthrights that must not be made merchan- 
dise of.” What do you suppose the many that Mr. 
Booth refers to as selling their inalienable rights 
that “God said must not be bought” according to 
Mr. Booth’s statement, obtained for theirs? And 
who do you suppose bought theirs? And what 
kind of craftiness or expression do you suppose 
they showed when they got in possession of them? 
What reason do you suppose Mr. Booth can give 
for not showing by some of his dramatic perform- 
ances how that man acted that was obtaining those 
he now refers to, that would baffle all language to 
give an adequate description of? Well, I reckon 
that he just overlooked this instance because it was 
a more familiar case. The Devil bought these peo- 
ple’s inalienable birthrights. It is such a common 
thing that their craftiness is unnoticed, and again 
we do not like for Satan to be exposed. And then 
again he had directed his thundering denunciation 
at Jacob, and not at Esau. Mr. Booth does not tell 
of finding any Jacobs down there. So who do 
you suppose was down there that could or even 
would, buy theirs? I will suggest that the Devil 
bought theirs, and did not give as much as a mess 


90 


Strong Delusions 


of pottage for it, only a promise, or rather a fancy, 
or falsehood, yes, a lie. Mr. Booth, in his above 
assertion of helping men made a misapplication of 
their inalienable birthrights that must not be made 
merchandise of. He certainly contradicts. He 
first condemns Jacob for buying, but don’t seem 
to find anyone to condemn for buying theirs, be- 
cause he cannot find any Jacobs down where he 
says he has been. As he gives no other reason we 
will assume this is his reason. “Mr. Booth, in a 
dramatic performance held his audience in breath- 
less attention, as he impersonated the crafty Jacob 
preparing and selling the mess of pottage to his 
brother Esau and receiving in exchange the coveted 
birthright, which in manner baffles any adequate 
description by word that can be conceived or ex- 
pressed.” Can we conceive or allow any such de- 
scription of any man of God above referred to that 
is led by the spirit of God? For I challenge any 
man to show me one statement in the Holy Word 
of God, showing that Jacob did not obey the Lord, 
or even his father or mother at any time. Then 
how can we accuse him of such monstrosities as 
Mr. Booth has in this sermon. Then charging him 
with buying something for nothing, and also covet- 
ing the inalienable birthright of his brother. The 
Lord God, the maker of us all, took the birthright 
from Esau, and gave it to Jacob before the 
children were born, so the birthright justly 
belonged to Jacob. The third point in his 
accusations, when Mr. Booth shows Jacob upon 
the stage, the curtain rises for the first time 
to represent the prototype of all unprincipled 
lawyers. May God have mercy on the man who 
makes an unlawful patrimony from the living of 


Strong Delusions 


91 


all helpless women and children. “But to look fur- 
ther, and the man greatly increased.” Do you not 
say that the wages of sin is death? Certainly. 
Has not Jacob sinned? Yes. But you cannot 
properly estimate the business until you get the 
annual balance sheet. The man that sins and goes 
down is not in half as much danger or peril as the 
man who sins and goes up. How hardly shall a 
rich man enter the kingdom of heaven.” In this 
third clause of accusation he shows Jacob as rep- 
resenting the prototype of all unprincipled law- 
yers. In this statement he says Jacob has no prin- 
ciple. No; no principle: Being destitute of virtue; 
not being restrained by his conscience : a profligate. 
The want of principle, having no good morals; he 
was unsettled in virtue. This is the idea of Jacob’s 
life, according to Mr. Booth’s comparison to all 
unprincipled lawyers; obtaining his living out of 
helpless women and children, by deception and all 
sorts of fraud. There is not a statement in the 
Bible that refers to any time when Jacob cheated 
any woman or child out of a penny. “God pity the 
man that does such things.” But I say God pity 
the man that will accuse a man that is in heaven, 
and lives a life virtuous enough to win heaven, of 
such things. The accusation goes further, he 
says: “The man greatly increased.” This is not 
said of Jacob in the Word of God, nor does this 
refer to him in any sense. Surely the wages of 
sin is death, but how can this refer to Jacob and 
he in heaven. He says that Jacob certainly sinned, 
but you must get the annual balance sheet before 
you can make a proper estimate of the business; 
and finds by this sheet, “That the man that sins 
and goes down is not in half so much danger as 


92 


Strong Delusions 


the man that sins and goes up.” I cannot but won- 
der where the man gets such an idea; think of a 
man going down in sin in less than half the danger 
of a man going up in sin; any man, or any one, 
whosoever, is in imminent danger who commits 
sin, whether going down or up or horizontal or 
parallel, or any other direction imaginable. How 
can you discern the difference, please tell me. God 
points downward to show the danger of sin ; going 
downward all the time lower and lower until he 
takes up his abode in hell. How hardly shall a 
rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. Neither 
does this apply in the least to our Father Jacob’s 
life; either to any other man’s life who has at- 
tained the final reward in heaven, the glory world. 
In Mr. Booth’s fourth point he says that, “after 
all it was not all joy and happiness in Jacob’s life, 
although he did that smooth trick and got the prize 
he wanted. Again the curtain rises and Jacob 
comes forward to represent all those who reap the 
consequence of their sin.” Mr. Booth charges 
Jacob with doing the smooth trick. Do you sup- 
pose that deal, made between these two brothers, 
both of them being present and knowing all about 
the whole transaction, was a very tricky affair? It 
was simply bringing God’s word to pass, the 
younger should rule the elder, or the elder should 
serve the younger. And Mr. Booth calls that a 
smooth trick. I am afraid to say anything like 
that. This is no more nor less than charging God 
himself of doing a smooth trick, for God gave all 
these words to Moses, and he wrote them down, 
and God charged him and said, see thou diminish 
not ought from all that I tell thee, and add noth- 
ing to these words. So the whole truth is told in 


Strong Delusions 


93 


all this story of God’s word, and nothing hut the 
truth, notwithstanding Mr. Booth tells a whole 
lot more. “Got the prize he wanted,” signifies 
that Jacob took by force as spoil or plunder, or 
obtained this by combat. That which was taken 
in any way from an enemy in war or by combat, 
or gained a reward by any performance, such as 
prize fighting or wrestling for reward. The thing 
he wanted; in another expression, he coveted or 
longed for. Now he shows Jacob reaping the con- 
sequence of his sin, with such performance as can 
not be described with words, called raising the cur- 
tain. “It is not what is in the hand but what is in 
the heart that makes the man happy. Bead the 
story and you will find that the penalty of his sin,” 
Mr. Booth said, “was ever mixed with his prosper- 
ity.” At this time of Jacob’s life he had nothing 
except what he had in his heart, but Mr. Booth 
signifies that he has accumulated great earthly 
riches; he was only a servant for years to come. 
The prize that is referred to here could not, of a 
certainty, be carried in his hands. When Isaac 
called Jacob and sent him away, and as he went 
everything bearing on the subject infers that Jacob 
must have walked on his way, and at night made 
his bed on the ground, and a stone for a pillow; 
did not have as much as a dog along with him. Let 
us get Mr. Booth to tell how he carried all of his 
earthly riches along with him: “He had to flee 
after he got the prize, like a fugitive, into the wil- 
derness. He never saw his father’s face again, nor 
his mother’s, who had brought him into most of his 
wickedness. And if the angels had not visited 
him this first night after he left home sometimes 
I think his heart might have broken.” So Mr. Booth 


94 


Strong Delusions 


says. We will look into this accusation, being 
the last in this paragraph. Had to flee. Mr. 
Booth forgets to give Jacob any choice in his pro- 
cedure; he was forced, according to his logic. I 
will give you God’s word on this point, whether 
it is believed or not. And Isaac called Jacob and 
blessed him, and charged him and said unto him: 
Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of 
Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house 
of Bethuel, thy mother’s father, and take a wife 
from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy moth- 
er’s brother. And God Almighty bless thee, and 
make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou 
mayest be a multitude of people ; and give thee the 
blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with 
thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein 
thou art a stranger which God gave unto Abra- 
ham. And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to 
Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel, the Syr- 
ian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s 
mother. This scripture, which is the truth and 
the whole truth, gives Jacob choice, and is a com- 
plete command for him to obey, and he obeyed, 
and he received Abraham’s blessing in excess of 
the one that he obtained of his father Isaac. So he 
got two blessings, you will observe. 

Now this was after Jacob got the prize he had to 
flee, according to Mr. Booth’s statement; the cov- 
eted thing previously described in this article. 
“Like a fugitive into the wilderness.” Which in- 
dicates a thief, murderer, or any other criminal. 
Such as the Allen gang, who fled after having as- 
sassinated the court of justice at Hillsville in West 
Virginia, fleeing to the mountains to escape jus- 
tice. Or the Lowery crowd that fled to the swamps 


Strong Delusions 


95 


of Moore County, who were guilty of robbing, 
killing and plundering, to evade justice. The 
above scripture shows that Mr. Booth’s state- 
ment is contradictory and erroneous. For the 
statement in God’s word is that he traveled one 
day and rested at the going down of the sun, and he 
lighted upon a certain place for the night. He was 
not frightened or hiding, like a criminal, but trav- 
eling. “Into the wilderness,” he said. But it 
don’t look much like a wilderness. Then Jacob 
went on his journey and came into the land of the 
people of the east. God calls it a land, and it was 
peopled, he says, and by good people too, for Jacob 
was commanded to go there to get him a wife. Be- 
cause of that fact, for the people of the Philis- 
tines were not good. And speaks of a well of wa- 
ter being in a field, and also a people, and his own 
chosen people, or their origin. And the people of 
the East received Jacob gladly, and with joy, and 
acknowledged him as being Rebekah’s son, and 
said to him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh. 
So Jacob abode there with his people until God 
appeared to him and commanded him to return 
unto his own country. “He never saw his father’s 
face again, nor the mother who had brought him 
into most of his wickedness.” Mr. Booth contra- 
dicts God’s w^ord in saying that he never saw his 
father or his mother again. I will give the Word 
of God just as it reads : “Jacob was forty years old 
when he went to Padanaram, and lived in that 
land twenty years, and then by the command of 
God he returned to his own country and came unto 
Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Ar- 
bah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac 
sojourned. And the days of Isaac were one hun- 


96 


Strong Delusions 


dred and four score years. And Isaac gave up the 
ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people, 
being old and full of days ; and his sons Esau and 
Jacob buried him.” As near as we can come at the 
time of his return to his father and mother’s home, 
it was about fifty-five, or a little less, years before 
his father Isaac died; and I will suggest that Jacob 
was with his parents many times while they yet 
lived, and think of their burying their father and 
not seeing his face. Such a man of honor as Jacob 
was seeing after his parents, and taking care of 
them in their old age and his return was directed 
by Jacob’s God, and how do we know but that it 
was for that very purpose, to take care of them. 
Then on top of all these accusations Mr. Booth 
heaps up more vile and unmanly and ungodly 
charges by saying that Jacob’s mother led him into 
most of his wickedness. Think of any man, much 
less a man out on the gospel mission, charging the 
father and mother of all the righteous, and the 
Father and mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, of 
doing such abominable iniquities as are charged to 
Isaac and Rebekah; as charged by Mr. Booth. 
It would be an outrage to accuse one yet living, 
much more one that has lived such a life of right- 
eousness before the Lord and died about four 
thousand years ago and gone home to God in 
heaven, and without a doubt can see and hear 
everything being said about him or her by any per- 
son here. Surely Isaac and Rebekah heard that 
sermon preached by Mr. Booth at West Market 
Street Church, about them, and what do you sup- 
pose they thought of it? There is no plainer state- 
ment, nor more emphatic one than that our de- 
parted friends can see us and hear what we say and 


Strong Delusions 


97 


tell what our wants are, and administer unto us 
such communication as God sees fit to confer upon 
ns; moreover, they can see and tell all about how 
we are living, good or bad. All who are in heaven 
can see and hear and know what is going on here. 
Of course they did not rail on him or accuse him. 
“I sometimes think that if it had not been for the 
vision of the angels ascending and descending his 
heart might have broken that first night. So Mr. 
Booth said. I wonder what impressed Mr. Booth 
of this heart-breaking idea that first night, after 
receiving such a glorious blessing just before he 
started, and certainly the spirit of God was with 
him, for angels do not visit people with such grand 
messages as that one Jacob saw, if they are wicked 
and mean like Mr. Booth says Jacob was. This is 
my idea that I get by reading the story, or rather, 
God’s word; that Jacob went away joyfully and 
perhaps prayerfully; praying that God would for- 
give Esau his brother of his awful threat of taking 
his life. And asking also God’s blessings upon 
his father and mother, who had been so good to 
him and conferred so many blessings on him. Who 
had taught him to worship and fear and obey him, 
both by word and precept, and Jacob obeyed all 
that they told him. And thus gives such full as- 
surances of God’s glorious visits and also his ap- 
pearance at the top. Instead of heart-breaking and 
sorrow and remorse of conscience this must have 
been a most glorious night with Jacob, sleeping so 
sweetly and dreaming; beholding the angels as- 
cending and descending on a ladder, of which one 
end stood upon the earth and the other end reached 
to heaven, and God at the top. Such a wonderful 
vision as this does not look like it would have any 
7 


98 


Strong Delusions 


tendency to break one’s heart, and he associating 
with the angels in a dream, and seeing God, which 
must have been much comfort and joy. He speaks 
of the angel which redeemed me from all evil. The 
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
fear him and delivereth them. Jacob certainly had a 
foretaste of heaven this first night. The angels per- 
forming wonderfully for him to see. I wish I could 
live a life so good and pure that I could associate 
with angels, though for only a short time. Jacob 
said the angels delivered him from all evil. He was 
referring to the evil that was pending by Esau, in- 
cluding all other. Mr. Booth says Jacob met his 
match when he met Laban. It was a case of Jew 
meeting Jew, diamond cutting diamond. Laban 
with his riches of land and stock and beautiful 
daughters, and Jacob had to serve many long years 
for the prize he coveted there. Mr. Booth uses the 
word match here in his meeting with Laban, in a 
very slangy and uncomplimentary way, about like 
men with gambling natures would say in referring 
to a prize fight, or a game of cards or a wrestling 
match ; or to a pair of fine horses, they are equally 
matched. Here in Mr. Booth’s statement from the 
general sentiment he conveys the idea that they 
were well matched in deviltry, in fact that is what 
he is talking about all through his discourse. And 
he certainly got there Eli, if it will do to match 
him in slang. He has been accusing good old Jacob, 
who is in heaven, of all sorts of wickedness to this 
point, and also referred to his parents and the 
training they gave him, so that they are fully in- 
volved. He just gets down on them with both feet 
and stamps and kicks. And while he is at this he 
forgets that they are the father and mother of Jesus 


Strong Delusions 


99 


Christ the Lord and Saviour. My idea is that he 
had just as well kick Jesus. “A case of Jew meet 
Jew, of diamond cut diamond.” More slang equal 
to the above or worse. In reference to what Mr. 
Booth said about Laban with his riches of land and 
stock and beautiful daughters, he seems to forget 
how rich. He had just gotten through preaching 
Jacob, and now says that Jacob had to serve many 
long years for the prize he coveted there. Jacob 
had a choice in this service, it was his own proposi- 
tion to serve seven years for the younger daughter. 
So he was not compelled by any coercive power to 
do this service, that I can see. “Long years,” so 
Mr. Booth says. But God says they seemed unto 
him but a few days for the love he had for her. I 
want to say here that there is a vast difference in 
love and covetousness. Love prompts us to do 
right, covetousness is wrong in itself and leads to 
all sorts of sin, even to blasphemy. “For the prize 
he coveted there.” Mr. Booth has got Jacob in for 
another prize. How is Jacob going to get this 
prize? Mr. Booth, is he getting something for 
nothing this time? Is he going to take this one by 
force and flee away into the wilderness like a fugi- 
tive? Answer me, and tell me if you know. I 
suggest, that he, with very much honor prefers to 
work seven years for this prize, and very natur- 
ally. For him to do this was in accordance with 
his raising, and also in harmony with his religion. 
“Coveted this prize there.” Mr. Booth signifies 
that Jacob had desire for these beautiful daughters 
down there. We can hardly think any such thing. 
There is no evidence of any such statement, if so, 
let it be produced in a theological form, and not 
just blurt out such an accusation, because you can 


100 


Strong Delusions 


think and talk. Such things are worse than folly. 
It was Jacob’s own choice to work for Rachel. 
Laban said what will you have for your labor and 
I will give it, and Jacob said nothing, but I will 
work seven years for Rachel, and they agreed and 
he went to work and was satisfied with the deci- 
sion. Mr. Booth says, “God help the man who 
would sell his soul, the man who is under the lash 
of the Laban of sin.” Mr. Booth has just been 
cursing Jacob out for buying the inalienable right, 
and now says that Jacob has sold his, and is pound- 
ing him for that. But this is not so, Jacob only 
gives seven years of his time and this does not in- 
dicate his selling his soul at all, more like an ex- 
change of time for an helpmate. It seems like 
Jacob had nothing else to give. This soul selling 
does not apply to Jacob at all. As I have said be- 
fore, Jacob is without doubt in heaven, and how 
can such blurts or erroneous statements apply to 
a soul that is saved. “The lash of the Laban of 
sin.” I do not know that Laban was such a great 
sinner, after all. We will have to get Mr. Booth to 
tell us what he did that was so bad, if he knows. 
I reckon he would say that he pursued Jacob when 
he had to flee from his father-in-law, for some more 
of Jacob’s meanness. Men of so much meanness 
cannot match together very long at a time. When 
they begin to cut each other some one gets sore, 
then you may listen for a falling out. This is indi- 
cated in Mr. Booth’s saying: “Jew meet Jew and 
diamond cut diamond.” Such stuff is not fit for 
decency. “And once more Jacob fled, he had to 
turn and go back to the old home.” This sounds 
just like Mr. Booth’s first statement about Jacob’s 
fleeing. He must have stolen something from La- 


Strong Delusions 


101 


ban, or some one. Though he says that this time 
Jacob returned to the old home. It is a little out 
of the usual for men of the character that Mr. 
Booth gives to our Father Jacob to return or go 
back to their old home, and among people that 
know them, and know what they are guilty of. 
They are ashamed, and don’t want to be seen. Then 
Mr. Booth forgets that he said that Jacob when he 
fled to the wilderness never returned to see his 
father’s face again, nor the mother who had 
brought him into most of his wickedness. See how 
his statements cross and conflict. Just like all de- 
luded persons, by false conceptions. And the 
worst of the whole thing is that such deluded, 
brainy men as he, Mr. Booth, deceive so many oth- 
ers. He acknowledged to me in a conversation 
that it was all delusion. “He had to turn from 
Laban.” Another case of no choice. We will turn to 
God’s word and see what he says about Jacob re- 
turning back home, thirty-first chapter, third verse 
Genesis: “And the Lord said unto Jacob: Return 
unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, 
and I will be with thee.” This was a command of 
God, and it certainly gave Jacob a chance ; his own 
choice of obeying or disobeying, and he chose for 
himself to obey, and gathered all that he had and 
started on his return. His wives and his children, 
setting them upon camels, and he carried all his 
cattle and his goods which he had gotten; the cat- 
tle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padana- 
ram to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. 
To go to Isaac his father. Mr. Booth said he never 
saw his face again. And it was so important a 
case of showing Jacob’s character of honesty that 
God in his wisdom repeats the words, getting of 


102 


Strong Delusions 


the cattle and goods which Jacob had gotten in this 
one verse twice; lest, if some one should arise and 
accuse Jacob of false gain, such as Mr. Booth has 
in this sermon. Thus have I been twenty years in 
thy house, I served thee fourteen years for thy two 
daughters, and six years for thy cattle, and thou 
hast changed my wages ten times. God shows 
Jacob’s honesty by saying that Jacob worked and 
paid for all his goods and wives; it being some- 
thing that no other man that I know has ever done, 
especially for their wives. “He had hardly started 
before he saw nothing before him but Esau. He 
tried in vain to put the thought away from him, to 
reason that bygones should be bygones; but it 
doesn’t matter how long ago a man committed a sin 
if it is not forgiven it comes up again.” Jacob had 
hardly started, Mr. Booth said, and could see noth- 
ing before him but Esau. But when we look on 
the right side, the side of the truth, we see differ- 
ently; and Jacob went on his way and the angels 
of God met him; and when Jacob saw them he said 
this is God’s host, and he called the name of that 
place Mahanaim or two camps. Look here, do you 
suppose that Esau and four hundred armed men, 
that Mr. Booth told about (though they were not 
armed men), got between Jacob and the angels so 
he could see nothing but Esau. Surely Esau was 
not so big as all that. This host of angels was be- 
fore him and encamping close around him, so Esau 
and his hosts were guarded off, and furthermore 
at this time Esau had not as much as heard of 
Jacob’s coming yet, for he had not started the mes- 
sengers to tell him, seeing he had come near to the 
land of Edom before the messenger’s were sent. If 
you will read the story of Jacob, you will find that 


Strong Delusions 


103 


God’s angels were watching over Jacob in the 
whole round, for God told him on the morning of 
the first night that he would be with him in all 
places whither thon goest, and will bring thee again 
into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have 
done that which I have spoken to thee of. Mr. 
Booth is not much of a theologian, and he is mak- 
ing a very poor record on this subject. The fact is 
down to this point it is a whole contradiction of 
God’s word. All that he charges him with wrong- 
doing is false. For God does not go or send his an- 
gels with wicked men to care for them. If so, then 
we had better live wicked. According to Mr. Booth’s 
statement Jacob’s agonies must have been dread- 
ful. “In vain he tried to put the thought of his 
sins away.” “To reason that past sins should be 
bygones, but notwithstanding the length of the 
time past, if not forgiven it comes up again.” This 
seems like the terrors of his life were unbearable. 
People get out of such trouble, as Mr. Booth 
speaks of Jacob’s, by cutting their own throats 
from one ear to the other, or by shooting their 
own brains out. He described Jacob’s case as be- 
ing about like the troubles of the Rev. 0. V. T. 
Richardson, who is now on trial for his life, and 
condemned to death, for the crime of poisoning his 
sweetheart, Avis Linnell. He says that he suffers 
the terrors of the eternal death, and you know 
what that is: hell fire and brimstone. And you 
see he tried to destroy his life, jbo get out of his ter- 
rors. “Then when it is reported that Esau comes 
with four hundred armed men we hear the prayer 
of the wretched man as he pleads with God not to 
permit his sins to be visited upon his family, that 
Rachel and little Joseph may be spared.” The 


104 


Strong Delusions 


wretched man’s prayer and pleadings, how awful! 
The exile, the one who was driven in the wilder- 
ness, a fugitive, a miserable person. Distressed 
about his own sins being conferred upon his fam- 
ily, especially spare the two hindmost ones. Had 
not Mr. Booth so much as read in God’s word that 
God does not hear the prayers of the wicked, and 
that the prayers of the wicked are an abomination 
to the Lord. Now if Jacob had been living such a 
life as Mr. Booth tells of, then you see it would 
have been making bad matters worse, and bringing 
God’s wrath down upon them. Now you see that 
the wretchedness of the wretched man waxed worse 
and worse, all the time, according to the great 
evangelist’s sermon. Would God have heard the 
prayer of a man that had brought on himself such 
wretchedness as described in this sermon, to this 
point, by continued transgression and rebellion, 
and crime committed against him? To have spared 
his family, or anything that he had, of his gettings. 
I say no, he would not have heard or answered any 
supplication of such a character, as related. The 
curtain rises again upon the last act and Jacob 
appears to represent those who come back in the 
right way to God. “The whole gospel is in this one 
story. He has come back to the parting of the 
ways where he took the fatal turning. It is a hard 
moment for Jacob. He sends his family on ahead 
and he remains alone and wrestles with God.” 
Jacob, the evangelist says, represents all who come 
back to God in the right way. He has not told of any 
confession or prayer of repentance that Jacob has 
made for himself to this time; only says that the 
wretched man prayed that his sins be not visited 
on his family. And that is no return by any means. 


Strong Delusions 


105 


Of the whole gospel — so far as this story goes — 
there is no gospel in this sermon to this time, 
but heaps and piles of false and cursed accusations, 
or yillifications, on Isaac, Jacob and his sainted 
mother, who is in heaven, doubtless. For God says 
that many shall come from the east and from the 
west and north and from the south and sit down 
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
heaven, and the children shall be left out. Yes, 
such children as Mr. Booth and we had better quit 
all our cursed wickedness, or we will be among 
those children that are left out, and there will be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. O what wretched- 
ness this will be! He has come back to the part- 
ing of the ways where he took the fatal turning. I 
do not see the least shadow of a charge by the Al- 
mighty God against Jacob’s parting from the ways 
of God at any time of his life ; but in every instance 
that God appeared unto him and commanded him he 
obeyed, and also he was very obedient to his father, 
Isaac and mother, Rebekah. “Fatal turning.” 
The evangelist conveys the idea that it was decreed, 
predetermined, his lot or destiny; it is our fate to 
meet with disappointments. The final event, death, 
destruction; this is the English idea conveyed by 
the word fatal. Now if this idea were true of 
Jacob, according to Mr. Booth’s sentiment, it was 
unavoidable, could not have been changed. Then 
why censure Jacob? Or have such a multitude of 
abuses piled upon him? If the man could not help 
doing these crimes, for there was no chance to es- 
cape, and the word fatal certainly conveys the most 
direct idea of death, and eternal death, too. So you 
see that the preacher left Jacob in a very preca- 
rious state of existence, even without hope. “It is 


106 


Strong Delusions 


a hard moment with Jacob.” According to the 
former description of his life it surely was a hard 
moment; it seems that the whole life was very hard 
and getting harder. There has not been one spark 
of joy spoken of in his whole life, but only terror, 
disappointments and remorse of conscience. If 
we believe such preaching as Mr. Booth has done we 
must denounce the Bible. “He sent all his family 
on ahead, and he remains alone and wrestles with 
God.” I would say that he lacked a whole lot of 
being alone, for God was with him — the most and 
the best company that any human being could ob- 
tain. And Jacob’s only reason for leaving his 
family — and that a noble one — was to com- 
mune with God. Such a critical moment as the 
evangelist describes, that he could not have af- 
forded to have sent them on ahead to have been 
slaughtered by the enemy, and himself escape, as he 
signifies. The family and all his host were put 
across the ford of the river Jordan, and he lodged 
there that same night; after he saw them all over, 
his two wives and his two women servants and his 
eleven sons, and passing over the ford Jabbok. And 
he took them and sent them over the brook, and 
sent over all that he had. After all was over and 
safely housed in camp, just as a faithful man would 
do, or manage all his affairs, you see Jacob doing. 
Then like Jesus on many occasions left his disci- 
ples and went away and prayed all night: in like 
manner I say that Jacob stayed on that side of the 
river Jordan and prayed, and the angel of God 
came to him, and he did something that no other 
man ever did, he wrestled with the angel like a 
man, taking hold of each other like men, and wres- 
tled until the break of day. And when the angel 


Strong Delusions 


107 


saw that Jacob was his equal, he touched his 
thigh and put it out of joint as he wrestled with 
him. Who ever heard tell of any man that wrestled 
with an angel but Jacob? I ask, could a wicked 
man have been equal to an angel? A wicked man 
has no power with God. Could not have seen or 
could not have come in any way near him. The 
only way that a man or men can gain strength or 
favor with God and man is by a continued service 
unto God, as such a life as our Father Jacob lived; 
then he can and will prevail. At this time he is ac- 
knowledged by the living God to be a prince, for he 
had power with God and with men, and hast pre- 
vailed. “How can a man wrestle with God? What 
faculty have I that I can bring into play with my 
Maker? Only one : that is trust. And Jacob 
trusted, and he said bless me now, and the angel 
asked what is your name, and he answered, Jacob. 
It was the name that went with the character of 
the man that bore it. Sometimes the name is jeal- 
ousy or selfishness or any one of a great number of 
sins, but when the confession is honest the blessing 
is sure to come, as it came to Jacob, and we see him 
coming forth the last to meet Esau. The light of 
the rising sun is upon him.” The evangel asks the 
above questions, how can a man wrestle with God. 
And he answers the question : “Only one, and that 
is trust.” We believe with him in this answer, but 
we are at a loss and puzzled to know how he can 
answer thus of a man with the character of Jacob, 
as he sees it. “And he says Jacob trusted ; and he 
said, bless me now, and the angel said what is your 
name, and he answered, Jacob.” Now after that, 
Mr. Booth says that Jacob trusted. Jumps on 
him again in that same slurring, way saying that 


108 


Strong Delusions 


it was the name that went with the character of 
the man who bore it. Alluding to just such a 
character as he had portrayed; getting something 
for nothing; prize seeking, covetous of that which 
is another’s. On a level with all unprincipled 
lawyers, making his living out of helpless women 
and children. A fugitive from justice, and any- 
thing but right. Makes him level with the mean- 
est of criminals, and equal to all backsliders, who 
live a life of terror and the meanest of all lives 
upon the face of the earth; and the only life that 
leads to self-destruction. Then comes with the 
edition, jealousy or selfishness, or any one of a 
great number of sins; say, cursing, drunkenness, 
whoring or even murdering. Just anything that 
can be done that is of a wicked and mean nature. 
An honest confession, he says, like Jacob made, 
then the blessing is sure to come, as it came to 
Jacob. Now as to Jacob’s confession, which Mr. 
Booth intimates was never made until he saw Esau 
coming to meet him, and was scared into it, which 
would only be mockery, was only another error of 
the evangelist. One of the most practical and plain- 
est confessions that I ever read of or witnessed, 
was that of Jacob, that first night that Jacob 
camped at Bethel, when he saw the angels ascending 
and descending on the ladder and God at the top. 
He confessed and promised God : “If you will keep 
me in this way that I go, and will give me bread 
to eat and raiment to put on, so that I can come 
again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the 
Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set 
for a pillow shall be God’s house, and of all that 
thou wilt give me I shall surely give the tenth to 
thee.” And on the strength of this confession, God 


Strong Delusions 


109 


heard and answered him and said unto him : “ And 
behold, I am with thee, and I will keep thee in all 
places whither thou goest, and will bring thee 
again unto this land, for I will not leave thee until 
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” 
This promise is just as conclusive as anything can 
be. And God fulfilled this promise unto Jacob, 
and did not let him be hurt. And all the slurs 
and blurts and accusations that can be said now 
cannot hurt Jacob’s character, nor change God’s 
word in the least. It only shows the unmanly 
principle and disrespect for our Father Jacob, 
also God’s word, and the belittling of one’s self to 
make such contradictory assertions as has been 
made in this sermon. I am surprised, but not un- 
necessarily, for God says there will come scoffers 
in these last days, and they will deceive many, 
even the very elect, if possible. “The last to meet 
Esau.” Mr. Booth would have us believe that 
Jacob put all that he had gotten while he lived 
in the land of the east between him and his brother 
Esau to save his own life; though all be destroyed 
save himself. Otherwise he wanted to show him 
up as a coward. But when we read the story it 
sounds very different. He divided the goods and 
set them in companies in order; then he took his 
hand-maidens and their children and set them out 
next ; and then Leah and her children next in front, 
and Rachel and Joseph last. Now Jacob goes be- 
fore the whole band, except the present that he had 
sent before to appease Esau’s wrath, Jacob using 
great strategy in his plans of meeting his brother 
and forming reconciliation between them. Jacob 
does just what Jesus commanded his disciples to 
do; therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar 


110 


Strong Delusions 


and there rememberest that thy brother hath 
aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the 
altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy 
brother and then come and offer thy gift. This 
being just what Jacob did in sending him these 
presents to appease his anger. He again imitates 
the Master in the law of order, when Jesus was 
feeding the multitude, in seating them in columns 
of fifties. How wise he seems, he must have been 
guided or led by the hand of the Great Creator. 
And he passed over before them and bowed himself 
to the ground seven times, until he came near to 
his brother. And Esau ran to meet him and met 
him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they 
wept; and he lifted up his eyes and saw women 
and children and said, who are those with thee? 
And he said, the children which God hath gra- 
ciously given thy servant. Then the hand-maids 
and their children came near and bowed them- 
selves, and Leah and her children came near and 
bowed themselves; afterward Joseph and Rachel 
came near and bowed themselves. Thus Jacob in- 
troduced his family who were strangers to his 
brother, and they had a great meeting. Undoubt- 
edly Jacob received a glorious invocation or bless- 
ing from God, as he prevailed with God and with 
men, even with Esau and his four hundred men. 
Jacob had to flee, the evangelist said, from Esau 
his brother, into the wilderness to save his life 
after he had done the smooth trick. But on his re- 
turn he seemed to have perfectly overcome Esau by 
his kindness to him ; but according to the statement 
in the story I see much more change in Esau than in 
Jacob. Think of Esau comforting himself by kill- 
ing his brother when they parted, and when they 


Strong Delusions 


111 


meet again his showing such love for him as to 
run and fall on his neck and kiss him and weep. 
Surely Jacob’s crimes was not so heinous after all. 
Surely this was a glorious day for Jacob, inasmuch 
as he won his brother to himself, and as far as we 
know Esau was a reformed man after this. He 
seemed to forgive Jacob. And if Esau under such 
depredations being committed on him, as portrayed 
by Mr. Booth, could have forgiven Jacob, it does 
look like Mr. Booth could forgive him also; and 
the transaction being committed four thousand 
years ago, surely he has had time a plenty to con- 
sider. Anyway he never tried to kill Jacob any 
more. “And Jacob said, what shall I call this the 
place of my sacrifice and of my surrender. I will 
call it Peniel, which means I have seen God face to 
face.” Jacob did not ask any questions as to nam- 
ing the place, neither did he say this was the place 
of my sacrifice or of my surrender. But Jacob 
called the name of the Place Peniel, “for I have 
seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 

In the review of this sermon preached by 
Mr. Booth, and comparing it with the teach- 
ings of the Bible, we find that it is a long cata- 
logue of mistakes or contradictions of God’s word. 
Jacob got a blessing the first night after he left 
home and God was with him ever after that in all 
his journey ings and guarded him from all evil. 
Jacob was one of the most honorable men that ever 
lived; he lived such an upright life that God went 
with him and blessed him oftener than any man 
that lived under the old dispensation. In the first 
place he obtained the birthright of Esau, and God 
gave him the birthright before he was born, mak- 
ing him two-fold in that. Then he obtained Esau’s 


112 


Strong Delusions 


blessing, or rather Isaac, his father, gave it to him, 
and then gave him Abraham’s blessing when he 
sent him to the eastern land, so he had two-fold 
blessing. Then on his way God blessed him. 
And after he got down there he graciously blessed 
him with his wives and his children. While Jacob 
dwelt in the land of the east God graciously gave 
him twelve sons, and threw his kind protection 
around them and preserved them ; and these twelve 
boys all lived to be men of honor, doubtless be- 
cause of Jacob’s justice and judgment and right- 
eousness. Then Jacob is honored by these sons of 
his, by their being appointed the twelve tribes of 
the children of Israel, to be referred to as a badge 
of honor for a memorial forever, never to be for- 
gotten. They are referred to as the twelve tribes 
of the children of Israel all through time, as heads 
and leaders of God’s people, and their names con- 
tinue all through eternity, as being one of the first 
and most sublime attractions in heaven. These 
twelve tribes representing the twelve pearly gates 
of that great and grand city, New Jerusalem, and 
all their names written on the gates with glittering 
golden letters, never to be obliterated or to grow 
old. These gates standing ajar forever for the 
glory of all nations, for the righteous to enter in 
through, to realize the majestic glory of God, and 
the Lamb, and joy and, happiness forever. What 
honor, who can tell? Then after he had worked 
and served fourteen years for his two wives he then 
served six more years for the cattle and goods 
that he had gotten, and God blessed the labor 
of his hands in that he gave him much cattle 
and goods. Then on his return from Laban 
God blessed him in protecting him from be- 


Strong Delusions 


113 


ing hurt by Laban. Then he met the host of 
God, or rather the angels of God met him, and 
when Jacob saw them he said this is God’s host; 
the place where he saw them representing two 
camps. Surely he received a blessing from the host 
of angels ; and then after he sent all over the ford 
Jabbok the angel wrestled with him all night and 
blessed him there. Then God blessed him in meet- 
ing Esau, his brother, and in giving him favor with 
him and his men, which was no mean thing for he 
caused Esau to yield unto him; or put it into his 
heart not to hurt Jacob. Jacob was honored with 
all the above named blessings, and many besides, 
no doubt even during the time of his stay in the 
east. Then Jacob is honored with all the proph- 
ets and good men of the Old Testament referring to 
the God of heaven as Jacob’s God; conclusively 
showing that he was very true to the service and 
obedient to God; making him the central star of 
the Old Testament. All the other stars circling 
round and pointing to him. In like manner that 
Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star of the 
New Testament, which all points to, Old and New 
Testament, alike. Then further, Jacob was honored 
above all the patriarchs in that he was the father 
of the Son of God, parentally, both father and 
mother, as relating to his descendants. Joseph 
was the son of the tribe of Judah, and Mary, hiis 
mother, was the daughter of Levi, of priestly de- 
scent. Surely these are stated facts that no one 
can deny, and all the honor is not mention to the 
credit of any other prophet that ever lived so full 
and so complete as is stated to Jacob’s credit. The 
preachers of all denominations and creeds, where 
there is money or no money, for the sake of their 
8 


114 


Strong Delusions 


creed are very careful in preaching the funerals of 
their dead that they speak nothing reproachful of 
them, notwithstanding the character of their lives, 
though they be bad. And how can any one in 
preaching on Jacob’s life, and it of so pure a char- 
acter that God could go with him wherever he 
went, and the holy angels could associate with 
him; I blush to say I cannot tell how bad. The 
whole sermon is wrong and cannot apply to Ja- 
cob’s life in the least. For if he had lived a wicked 
life until he met Esau on his return, as was de- 
scribed by Mr. Booth, and had repented of his in- 
iquity, and made restitution and done no more 
iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None 
of his sins that he hath committed shall be men- 
tioned unto him, he hath done that which is law- 
ful and right, he shall surely live. Mr. Booth in 
a way says that Jacob repented, he says he sacri- 
ficed and he surrendered. Then he had no right 
whatever to go back and take up all this rot and 
tell about it, though it were true. For God says 
that the name of our sins shall not be mentioned 
any more. So you see that Mr. Booth did wrong 
in telling these things, whether he did them or not. 
But it was not true and is so much worse. It 
amounts to a shame and a reproach and a curse. 
A shame to any man that would say such things 
about a saint in heaven. A reproach to the living 
God to contradict his word in such blasphemous 
statements. A curse upon the man that does such 
a thing, and on every one who is induced to believe 
such erroneous doctrine. Such sermons as were 
preached by Mr. Booth is of a surety brain reli- 
gion. No heart religion ever contradicts God’s 
word or crosses itself, for it is led by the Holy 


Strong Delusions 


115 


Spirit and lie cannot lie. But religion of the brain 
is easily deluded for it depends on the human 
power. Then in honor of Father Jacob, for he is 
one of the two men named in the Holy Scriptures 
in whom God’s word was fulfilled. Jacob must 
have been one of those who stood on Mount Zion 
with the Lamb, whose number was one hundred 
and forty and four thousand, having his father’s 
name written in their foreheads. And I heard a 
voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters 
and as the voice of many nations, and as the voice 
of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harp- 
ers, and they sung as if it were a new song before 
the throne, and before the four beasts, and the eld- 
ers, and no man could learn that song but the hun- 
dred and forty and four thousand which were re- 
deemed from the earth. These are they which fol- 
low the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These 
were redeemed from among men, being the first 
fruits unto God and the Lamb, and in their mouths 
was found no guile, for they are without fault be- 
fore the throne of God. Jacob must have been 
one of this great number that arose after the res- 
urrection of Jesus and went into the city, and was 
seen by those who witnessed for Jesus the Son of 
God, both soul and body. Joining that great 
army of one hundred and forty and four thousand 
going with the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. 
God’s word expressly says that Jacob is in heaven, 
and we cannot see any reason why the honored 
prophet should not have a part in this first resur- 
rection. There being twelve thousand of each tribe 
of Israel that arose, why not the venerable father 
with them? People say all manner of good and 
pleasant things about men and women that have 


116 


Strong Delusions 


lived among us of late years, that have achieved 
some noble deed or won some great battle or some 
fame in some memories of those fathers and moth- 
ers of righteousness and contribute the highest 
praise to their great names, next in honor to our 
Lord Jesus Christ. But alas, we hear from the 
mouths of those in the pulpits, and leading lay- 
men, and in all classes of professed Christians, 
slurring, taunting and blasphemous accusations 
against the good names of the holy men and God’s 
word ; and the use of sharp, bitter, sarcastic words 
of reproach to the memories of their pure lives, 
and in the most insulting form of accusations; to 
say that Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and cheated 
him out of his blessing by lying and fraud, and 
charging Abraham and his wife with conspiracy 
and lying; and to charge King David with being a 
murderer. These are some of the thoughts and 
words of shame thrown on their memories, or laid 
on their sepulchres. A long covering of shameful, 
subtle and atrocious accusations by our late Chris- 
tians, who live so easy and have such favorable op- 
portunities, These are the sort of monuments that 
are set up to the names and memories of our fa- 
thers of righteousness. This is w T hat this fast run- 
ning religious people are doing in the place of 
showing the sweet way, whether they ever achieved 
any godly honor or not. Furthermore, they spend 
millions and millions of dollars to cover their 
graves with flowers and tombstones, also building 
monuments in their honor of the most lasting ma- 
terial that can be obtained; their heroism being 
obtained by their shrewd and cunning ingenuity 
or their great strength, or any other great quality, 
and we do admire their true honor in memory of 


Strong Delusions 


117 


our dead for their noble deeds and gallant achieve- 
ments. But on the other hand we want to cherish 
the memory of our ancient fathers, who fought the 
battles of Christian life with such wonderful hero- 
ism, and held the fort with so much honor against 
great odds as to number, under the leadership of 
human kings directed by the Word of God, or what 
the great Apostle Paul called our Schoolmaster. 
The odds they endured were both temporal and 
spiritual; one putting one thousand to flight, and 
two chasing ten thousand. Certainly they were 
heroes indeed. Alas, how they suffered for their 
righteous integrity; who can realize the savage 
cruelty. Yet they retained their faith unto death. 
Who through their faith subdued kingdoms, 
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped 
the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, 
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness 
were made strong, waxed violent in fight, turned 
to flight the armies of the aliens ; women had their 
dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, 
not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a 
better resurrection; and others had trials of cruel 
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds 
and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were 
sawed asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword; they wandered about in sheep skins and 
goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented of 
whom the world was not worthy. They wandered 
in deserts and in mountains and in dense and caves 
of the earth. And these all having gained or ob- 
tained a good report through faith, received not 
the promise. God having provided some better 
thing for us, that they without us should not be 
made perfect. Seeing such suffering that they en- 


118 


Strong Delusions 


dured for our examples, without receiving the 
promise; though we, through their faith and integ- 
rity or endurance, received a perfect fulfillment of 
the law, and can worship under the great high 
priest, Jesus Christ, who intercedes for us, having 
risen from the dead. Shall we shrink or fail to 
bestow the first tribute of honor upon the love of 
a Christian heart, that they lived holy lives under 
such trying circumstances, as above stated. To 
show the influence of such doctrine preached about 
our ancient and righteous fathers as Mr. Booth 
preached about good old Jacob, I took the sermon 
in one hand and the Bible in the other hand and 
went to see Mr. W. R. Ware, the Presiding Elder 
of the Greensboro District, to show him how the 
sermon contradicted the Bible, and he said to me 
as I presented them to him that he “was not going 
to give me his opinion about that sermon.” I told 
him I did not want him to, but I came to show him 
the truth of God’s word, and the contradiction of 
the same by Mr. Booth; and I endeavored to show 
him and he admitted that I had the truth there in 
my hand, pointing to the Bible. And I told him 
I expected to abide by it. Then he said as we 
talked “that he was not going to argue with me,” 
and I replied I did not want any argument, but 
wanted to show him the truth in the matter, but 
he continued to say as many as three times that he 
was not going to argue with me, inferring that I 
had come to argue the question of the Word of 
God, which had never entered my mind. My sole 
purpose being to show the difference in the sermon 
and the Bible, thinking that Mr. Ware would take 
sides with God. But alas, he was against it and 
took up for Mr. Booth and said “that the sermon 


Strong Delusions 


119 


was the greatest sermon he had ever heard in his 
life.” So yon see that this delusive doctrine cap- 
tured the presiding elder and nearly all that heard 
him. Now you see how wrong always crosses or 
contradicts itself, for Mr. Ware said that he was 
not going to give me his opinion as to the sermon 
in the outset, and before we had talked very much 
he said “that it was the greatest sermon that he 
ever heard in his life.” I would not like for Mr. 
Booth or Mr. Ware to preach my funeral, unless 
they underwent a wonderful change. I did not set 
a trap to catch Mr. Ware as to his own contradic- 
tion, but it was his own trap that he set that 
caught him. When we examine the multitude of 
people, by classes of all distinction, in committing 
offenses, the Christian skeptic must be the most 
abhorrent to the Master. One who professes to be 
a disciple of Jesus and comes into the sanctuary 
to teach or preach, and to lead the children, and 
they full of all sorts of contradictions as to the 
Word of God. No wonder that Jesus said it would 
be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and 
Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for this 
generation. They are simply hypocritical religious 
traitors. And Jesus said when you see the desola- 
tion spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, standing 
in the holy place, you may look out for the time is 
at hand. Just yesterday in Sunday School, July 
fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve, a man by 
the name of Balief, who is a Sunday School teacher 
of right long standing, and teacher of the Baraca 
class, joined my class, and to the astonishment of 
justice contended that God could and did do wrong 
and referred to his turning of the children of Israel 
back into the wilderness as an instance of his so 


120 


Strong Delusions 


doing. Such accusations make a just or conscien- 
tious man shudder. But the proverb has come to 
pass, the dog has turned to his own vomit, and the 
sow that was washed to wallowing in her mire, these 
being the filthiest of the filthy. There is but one 
other thing that can be thought of that is more 
filthy than the above mentioned, and it is so filthy 
that it is not fit to put in print. Mr. Booth 
preached a sermon in course of the same meeting 
about the prophet Elijah, which was very fine until 
he described the size of the prophet. He pictured 
the prophet’s life very fine until he had described 
him down to the journey that he went on for his 
life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to 
Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself 
went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came 
and sat down under a juniper tree, where the angel 
awoke him from sleep and fed him. And he re- 
quested for himself that he might die; and said, it 
is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life for I am 
not better than my fathers. At this point in his 
sermon he said that Elijah was a great big man, 
repeating it about three times, and walked dramat- 
ically across the platform, thrice, showing the 
size of the prophet, a thousand-fold larger than he 
or any one could have found words in the English 
language to express. The inference, seemingly, 
that Elijah was elated or puffed up on what mighty 
things lie had been doing. Now let us compare 
this idea or statement of Mr. Booth’s with the word 
of God. As stated above, Elijah went for his life. 
Does it look like any man would feel big when his 
life was in jeopardy and was compelled to escape 
to save it; and after he had traveled one day’s 
journey into the wilderness, and while he sat here 


Strong Delusions 


121 


alone meditating he prayed God to take his life, for 
I am no better than my fathers, showing the ut- 
most humility. That does not sound like a big 
man, such as referred to in this sermon, for such 
men do not want to die. He was doubtless very 
tired for he lay under the juniper tree asleep alone. 
This does not look like a man who could feel very 
big about what he had achieved. And as he lay 
and slept under the juniper tree, behold, then an 
angel touched him and said unto him, arise and 
eat; and he looked, and behold, there was a cake 
baked on the coals and a cruet of water at his 
head; and he did eat and drink and laid him down 
again. And the second time the angel of the Lord 
touched him and said, arise and eat, because the 
journey is too great for thee. And he arose and 
did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that 
meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the 
mount of God. Does it look like there is anything 
about this little performance of the angel, and the 
obedience of Elijah that would make him feel very 
big? I will answer no, but just the reverse. The 
fear of the Lord was upon Elijah and he felt very 
humble. And he came thither to a cave and lodged 
there, and behold the word of the Lord came to 
Elijah and said unto him : “What doest thou 
here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jeal- 
ous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of 
Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down 
thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, 
and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life 
to take it away.” This answer seems very humili- 
ating ; seeking his life to destroy it. And God does 
not talk much to big men in this sense or feed them 
by the hand of ah angel. He did not feed Pharaoh 


122 


Strong Delusions 


that way, but gave him blood to drink and frogs to 
lie with, and lice, on man and on beast, and swarms 
of flies, and upon all the beasts of Pharaoh sore 
boils, with blisters upon man and beast; and he 
yet exalted himself against God’s people. Then 
gave him a very grievous hail and fire, and then 
Pharaoh begged; and then came locusts, and dark- 
ness that was felt, and death. Thus God feeds 
great big men, and then when the people of God 
fled Pharaoh followed them, and God caused the 
water in the sea to stand as a wall on each side, so 
the children of Israel crossed on dry ground; and 
Pharaoh went in and God turned the flood of water 
in on him, and they all perished. Thus the Lord 
deals with great big people. And he said, go forth 
and stand upon the mount before the Lord, and be- 
hold the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind 
rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks 
before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. 
And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord 
was not in the earthquake; and after the earth- 
quake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and 
after the fire a still small voice. Do you suppose 
that Elijah, or any man in the midst of such a 
strong wind as would rend the mountains and 
break the rocks would have felt very big? Or in 
an earthquake when the mountain was reeling and 
rocking like it was going to an end, that he felt 
very big? Or when a consuming fire broke out 
and the flames were consuming everything 
around him, he, or any other man, would have 
felt very big? Now, when did Mr. Booth see 
Elijah when he looked so big? I wish he would 
tell me. Now let us go a little further. And it was 
so that when Elijah heard it (the still small voice) 


Strong Delusions 


123 


that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went 
out and stood in the entrance to the cave. Do you 
see Elijah with his face covered for the Lord to 
speak to him — does this show any sign of bigotry? 
I should say no, not any such thing, only fear and 
humility. When we read the story of Elijah’s life 
we see the least trace or signs of bigotry in his life 
of any man that ever lived. He was so hum- 
ble and obedient that he never died, but the Lord 
came down in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire 
with horses of fire and took Elijah to heaven. 
The only one of two men who ever went to heaven 
without dying, so far as we know. I do not see 
how any one could read the whole story of Elijah’s 
life and then conclude that he was anything but 
an humble and obedient servant of the Great God. 
If he ever disobeyed we have no account of it. 
Then why should any one exaggerate on the big- 
otry of an humble servant of God, when there is not 
the least inference of such a thing in God’s holy 
revealed word. I will just say that the revealed 
word of God is the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth. Now if there was any such 
thing about Elijah as is shown and said by Mr. 
Booth in his sermon, and not set forth in the Scrip- 
tures, then it is not the whole truth because it is 
not told. But to the contrary the whole of his life 
service is set forth. So let God be true and all 
men liars. And further, these big, strong, brainy 
men like Mr. Booth and Mr. Chaffer, and many 
others, are a little like the man that prefixes an 
oath to their statements to strengthen them, which 
detracts from the strength of the assertion. In 
trying to get up some brainy discourses they leave 
out the word of God and ruin the whole thing. It 
is worse than blank. 


124 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Sermon by Mr. Detwiler. 

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST DOMINATING ALL OTHERS. 

A sermon by G. H. Detwiler, delivered at West 
Market St. Church, Greensboro, N. C., Sunday 
morning, July 12, 1908. The text: “My King- 
dom is not of this world.” These are the words 
spoken by Jesus when he was on trial before Pilate, 
in answer to Pilate’s question, when he called 
Jesus and asked him if he was king of the Jews. 
And further stated that if my kingdom were of this 
world, then would my servants fight for me, that I 
should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my 
kingdom not from hence. These words of Jesus 
signify that he will reign in the everlasting king- 
dom above and not on earth. Then further, Jesus 
stated that : “To this end I was born, and for this 
cause, came I into the world, that I should bear 
witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the 
truth heareth my voice.” Now it is very evident 
that he came into the world to establish the truth, 
and to set up his kingdom, to be worked out by his 
followers, and to destroy the lying works of the 
Devil, which he had infused into man. Doctor 
Detwiler’s argument in the outset seems very 
plausible, “that the world forces had reached their 
full limitations before Christ came to the world.” 
And he refers to the self-indulgence, and the gath- 
ering of goods were worked out to its full limit be- 
fore Jesus came to this world. He then referred 
to what the Roman Senators had been and done 
before Christ came, and that is all that you can do, 


Strong Delusions 


125 


with money at its worst in politics. He then re- 
ferred to Rome and Greece and Egypt before 
Christ came into this world, and their wealth and 
fashionable pleasures were only a reproduction 
now, of the scenes at Newport and the great fash- 
ionable watering places in Europe. These are only 
the ultimate program worked out to the "full limit 
on the shores of the Adriatic and on the banks of 
the Tiber — nothing new in it at all.” He also re- 
ferred to the political chicanery, and the cunning 
strategy that had obtained in the great wars of 
the past, and said "all that military power can ac- 
complish by organizing and controlling and direct- 
ing the forces of the human mind and of human 
society were wrought out to their full limitation.” 
And asked the question, "Wherein have we im- 
proved on military discipline since the days of 
Caesar?” Then he refers to our courts and said 
that we have not excelled in jurisprudence the laws 
of Rome. He said we go back to their books to get 
arguments from the books written in the days of 
Caesar. He reiterated that all political founda- 
tions or questions were settled and worked out in 
their limitations before Jesus Christ came into this 
world. Then he said: "Jesus said to Peter, Tut 
up thy sword’ ” ; this is not our field of operation. 
Men have worked out this great field to its limit 
and we must not go into it at all. They will organ- 
ize it after I am gone, and think they are doing 
something new, but that will be simply a variation. 
He then continues his argument in this line, and 
like other great men says, in his sentiment of Jesus, 
that he looked over all these great men-ruled pow- 
ers, and so Jesus said: "No, I am not going there.” 
Then Mr. Detwiler turns to the "great world force 


126 


Strong Delusions 


of culture that had reached its full limitation be- 
fore Christ’s kingdom.” He says “they had an- 
alyzed and mastered the great religions of the 
world, and the great religious realm of thought. 
He pointed out to the Temples on the Nile, how 
they had wrought it out in sculpture to stare us in 
the face upon the sandy beaches of the Euphrates. 
Now he refers to the sculptors of Greece, that we 
go back to them, and dig out their broken remains 
of their master work, as copies today. And we 
measure out philosophy in the modern world by 
Plato and Socrates and Seneca. He says that the 
ancients, as a rule, have gone further or beyond our 
modern times, in refining and sharpening the 
senses of man, in their intellectual wits, to explore 
the great realm of thought. And so Jesus Christ 
did not go into that and he did not undertake to 
build up an intellectual realm. He was not a man 
of the schools. I differ from Mr. Detwiler in the 
general trend of his argument. I do not see any 
use, or reason, for going back and showing up all 
of the glory of the world, before the first coming of 
the Son of God to show that Jesus did not come to 
accept these elements in the human family, to ad- 
vance them or to rule over them as king. Then 
the answer he gives in both cases infers that the 
Son of God had made a careful consideration of 
these propositions, and thereby analyzed all that 
were in them, and then on his good, sound judg- 
ment, made his decision. And so Jesus said, no I 
am not going there. I ask the question, does any 
sane man that reads God’s word, and will let the 
Holy Spirit have the leading, believe that Jesus 
could let any such intimations come into his pure 
mind. No, no more than he could build such a 


Strong Delusions 


127 


kingdom, and you know, if you know anything 
about the attributes of God, He could not do any 
such thing. And if he had thought about these 
things or looked upon them in the light inferred, 
then and there the whole of God’s kingdom would 
have come to an end. Or does any man think 
that Jesus could have thought of accepting a king- 
dom, in any line, pictured by Mr. Detwiler, here on 
earth among the filthy vulgarity practiced by the 
human family? Just think of the slums, and 
drunkenness, and whoredoms, and liars, and mur- 
derers and all kinds of idolatry. Just think of 
such a thing as Jesus presiding over such a king- 
dom ! That is the reason, and no other reason that 
he is not here, because there is no union. He said 
the question is what did Jesus mean by saying 
My kingdom is not of this world? And he then 
went over the whole subject of his discourse to this 
point. He said further: When He passed by all 
that could be accomplished by money, all that 
could be accomplished by political power, and mil- 
itary power, and all that could be wrought out in 
the thought of men, and in the great intellectual 
movements of life, where was he to find place 
upon which to put his feet? The idea suggested 
by his passing by all these allurements only con- 
firms Mr. Detwiler’s sentiment that the Saviour, 
Jesus Christ considered, and took particular no- 
tice, of all these pictures of high place gods erected 
and built up by man. Then He said, no I am not 
going there. Mr. Detwiler, in answering the ques- 
tion as to where he would place his feet, said, 
“Well, it might be answered in a single word, love; 
and the agency through which he proposed to ac- 
complish it was the spiritual agency, the Holy 


128 


Strong Delusions 


Ghost.” In answering the question where would 
Jesus put his feet, he said on the word love. But 
according to Christ’s own statement, I think fuller 
sense of the theology would be the truth. To this 
end was I born, for this cause came I into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. 
Then the foundation of heaven and earth, and 
everything that be of God is truth, and all the other 
attributes of God point to the truth. God is not 
a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, 
that he should repent, hath he said, and shall he 
not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not 
make it good? Jesus saith unto him, I am the 
way, the truth and the life, for the law was given 
by Moses, but truth and grace came by Jesus 
Christ. So you see that the truth proves out to be 
the foundation. And another evidence of no mean 
face, the truth is the opposite of a lie. So you 
see on the truth we stand, and on a lie we fall. 
And he answered also, “that Jesus would accom- 
plish his Kingdom through the agency of the Holy 
Ghost, or proposed to do so. The whole conquest 
was to be wrought out in the moral world. His 
Kingdom was primarily composed of what might 
be called the spiritual forces of the universe. He 
planted his feet there and nowhere else.” I will 
say that I do not know what part of our soul’s sal- 
vation the Holy Spirit performed, in Christ’s king- 
dom here on earth, for it is not revealed unto 
us, but it is stated that the Lamb, tread the wine- 
press of the wrath of God without the city, and 
blood came out of the winepress, even unto the 
horses’ bridles, by the space of a thousand and six 
hundred furlongs, which is equal to two hundred 
miles of our measure and the breath is not limited. 


Strong Delusions 


129 


Then who can count the cost of the redeeming love. 
Then again: Jesus, about the ninth hour, cried 
with a loud voice, saying, “My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me?” Thus saying shows that the 
father had left him, or rather refused to see his Son 
die. We had better look out. Just a while ago Mr. 
Detwiler had Jesus Christ’s feet placed upon love. 
Now he planted his feet upon what might be called 
the spiritual forces of the universe, or the whole 
creation, and nowhere else. And as to spirits of 
the universe, we cannot define them. God is a 
spirit, and by his power he keeps the whole uni- 
verse in place, but says that all the elements 
will be dissolved with fervent heat, and this covers 
the whole thing. Then where will Jesus stand; 
his platform will be gone. I think Mr. Detwiler 
gets a little mixed up, and crossed. There is only 
one straight way, and that is the word of God, 
and if we will not diminish aught from all these 
words nor add anything to it, now if we will read 
the Bible and do this, we will be straight. And this 
straight and narrow way begins right here in our 
reach, and extends up to heaven, and if we will stay 
right in it we will go there. And furthermore, 
there is room in this narrow way for all of us, if 
we will avail ourselves of the high privilege of 
walking therein. “It was primarily a spiritual 
kingdom.” I will say that the word “primarily 
does not convey the proper meaning as to the ush- 
ering in of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand, signifies that Jesus Christ is 
the kingdom himself. John the Baptist says re- 
pent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and 
we know that he was talking of Jesus, for thus 
is he spoken of by the prophet Esaias. From that 
9 


130 


Strong Delusions 


time Jesus began to preach, and say repent for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of 
God is come nigh unto you. Notwithstanding be 
ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come 
nigh unto you. These statements convey a united 
idea that he himself was, and is, the kingdom of 
heaven, and he also says that I am not of this 
world. And it is a positive fact that the kingdom 
of heaven was in Him, and He came into the world, 
and this covers the ground that he was the king- 
dom. Now, Mr. Detwiler said “his kingdom was 
not simply a moral kingdom in the ordinary sense 
of that term. It was primarily a spiritual king- 
dom, having to do with the great moral forces that 
enter into the movements of mankind, to deter- 
mine conditions that direct the movements of the 
world. It required tremendous courage, courage 
that amounted to audacity. It required infinite 
faith because such a thing could not be wrought 
out in a day.” He then showed that men was not 
used to dealing with these values and forces, but 
they knew how to handle money, how to organize 
armies, and how to manipulate politics, but did 
not know how to deal with these new forces, they 
were entirely new. “But the silent forces were the 
most potential or impressive forces in the world.” 
So Jesus was master of the kingdom makers in 
that he grasped these great masterful forces. He 
here shows the same sentiment in this allusion to 
grasping the situation that man could not grasp 
or understand. Yes, the same intimation that he 
was only a man, and had to consider all the forces 
that Mr. Detwiler refers to, that men are working 
out, turning them over in his mind for to make his 
decision, as to the acceptance of the different prop- 


Strong Delusions 


131 


osition. That he was only a man but was a little 
sharper, or in other words, too sharp to accept 
these old general ideas of rule power, and grasped 
the higher idea of the spiritual forces of this world. 
Then the preacher proceeds on the discussion of 
how far that this invisible kingdom has subdued all 
these laws or forces; but says he does not know. 
He then referred to how few people there were 
in the days of the ancients, to cry out against evil, 
and said it is not so with the modern Ameri- 
can people, but they have a healthy contempt and 
scorn and disapproval of what money can do in 
grafting to gratify the appetites of men. That is 
the way the kingdom is growing. He then shows 
that the higher powers control in the political king- 
dom, and explains that the world will not be sub- 
dued by military genius, but by the strange domit- 
nating moral force, that comes out of the kingdom 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that holds us back from 
bloodshed and wars. Then the great field of cul- 
ture, and the clashes, and Calvinistic controver- 
sies, and the modern science controversies were 
fought out by the critics, and the results of these 
agitations are not to be despised, for it has re- 
moved misapprehensions and errors, but not 
changed the kingdom, but has cleared the way that 
the cross might be seen clearer. 

He now explains the art world, and says that 
none will ever go beyond Greece, but the reason 
we never have been carving marble since is that 
Jesus has given us something new to work upon. 
He admits that the gospel of Jesus Christ not only 
controls but gives richer intellectual life for the 
races of the world. 

As to the world reaching to the sublime height 


132 


Strong Delusions 


of all the forces of human achievements and inven- 
tions, we beg to differ right much with the Doctor. 
Who ever heard of the steam locomotive in the days 
of the prophets and railroads for the express of 
business or traffic, or who ever heard of telegraph 
wire for quick communications in those days, or 
the telephone wire for talking miles distant, as 
though we were face to face? And then the wire- 
less telegraph, and cablegram, who ever heard of 
these things being in use in the days of the proph- 
ets, or who ever heard of seed separating ma- 
chines, or milk and cream separators, in those days, 
or the aerial flights by the airship, and many other 
things, the extensive war instruments. Yet, Dr. 
Detwiler, in winding up his argument, on the 
heights of these material forces, acknowledges, 
and well he may, “not that men could hope to 
excel, but that the gospel of Jesus Christ has 
given us something new to work on. And so the 
gospel of Jesus Christ not only controls, but it en- 
riches all the intellectual life of the race and of the 
world. ” And if it does enrich our intelligence 
why not go further in any or all of these human 
achievements that he has referred to, and just as 
much further, in proportion, to the advance of the 
light bestowed on us. I will frankly admit that the 
old world reached the climax materially for that peo- 
ple, in all the forces that could be obtained through 
their intellect or understanding. And further 
they spent their whole strength, time and money 
in that direction, to such an extent that they left 
off the obedience to God, which is the whole duty 
of man, to our God. The time came when the 
Lord said that Elijah, the prophet should come, 
and reconcile the fathers and children together, or 


Strong Delusions 


133 


turn them by repentence, lest I come and smite 
the earth with a curse. So you see by this state- 
ment that their rebellion was about to come to an 
end. But Jesus came in due time, and set up his 
kingdom and saved the world. But the trend of 
the people is, and has been, ever since the fall of 
mankind, to wander from the fold of God, and go 
further and further until destroyed. “My king- 
dom is not of this world. It operates on spiritual 
lines; it uses spiritual forces, it has in it the ele- 
ments that require consecration, and patience, and 
faith — these great forces of the human heart. I 
am glad that I do not have to go down on the tower 
to fight the battles of the cross. I am dealing 
with the great forces when I am dealing with the 
gospel. And these forces are the great dominant 
forces that are going to conquer the world.” Now 
after Mr. Detwiler says that the gospel, the spirit- 
ual forces, that are fought by consecration and 
patience and faith, these battles of the Cross, he is 
dealing with, are going to conquer and dominate 
the world, he then turns and says: “You Isay, 
then, do you believe the millenium is coming? Will 
all corruption cease? Will there be a perfect ad- 
justment of all these human relations? Do you 
believe that there will be a time of endless delight 
when there will be no poor, no naked, no sick; do 
you believe that all men will be brought to believe 
in the Lord Jesus Christ?” If Mr. Detwiler knows 
anything at all, about the future, or the present, he 
knows that all men will not be brought to believe 
on Jesus Christ, for he said in another sermon, that 
there is a class of good people, just outside the 
church that he cannot reach with his preaching ; but 
God is going to raise up a class of preachers that 


134 


Strong Delusions 


will reach them. And he sees thousands of people 
living right now, in unbelief, and dying in rebellion, 
and unbelief every day. And further, God’s word 
teaches plainly, that time will be going on, in this 
same manner until the second coming of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. People will be marrying, and buy- 
ing, and selling, and building, and, in fact, going on 
and doing just like there will be no end, and he 
will come at a time that we are not looking or even 
expecting him. In reply, “I do not know, and 
there is no positive statement in the Bible that 
would lead me to dogmatize on these things.” And 
he gives for his reasons that “because his kingdom 
is not material, and therefore I cannot, in terms of 
ordinary language, describe specifically the glory 
of its triumph.” Right here I want to say that if 
Mr. Detwiler don’t know which is his emphatic an- 
swer that he has no business of discussing the mat- 
ters; no, no more than I have of assuming to say 
that God’s word is not true. For that is just what 
such controversies amount to. He contradicts his 
own statement in saying that the gospel force will 
dominate, and then wheeled around and said he 
did not know. If a man contradicts himself, then 
the whole thing is wrong, and the man, too. Of 
course, all corruption will cease and all be peace. 
There will be no human adjustment of human re- 
lations. And I will give God’s word for the third 
answer of his question. And God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain, for the former things 
are passed away. The scripture gives a full and 
emphatic and adequate answer. I don’t believe 
that all men will be brought to believe on the Lord 


Strong Delusions 


135 


Jesus Christ, for the kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation. Jesus said, for behold the king- 
dom of God is within you. Another answer that 
Jesus himself is the kingdom. Mr. Detwiler said : 
“There are no positive statements in the Bible that 
would lead him to dogmatize on these things.” This 
is a contradiction of God’s word for there are many 
clear statements in the Bible, so we cannot be mis- 
led if we will read and believe. The verse quoted 
above ought to be sufficient evidence for anybody. 
But I will give more. All the prophets, and Jesus 
and the Revelation of John all speak of it uni- 
formly. Here are some of the words: “For the 
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and shall lead them into living fountains of 
waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes. He will swallow up death in victory; 
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off 
all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take 
away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath 
spoken it. I will ransom them from the power of the 
grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I 
will be thy pledge; O grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion; repentance shall be had from mine eyes. So 
when this corruptible shall have put on incorrup- 
tion, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is writ- 
ten: Death is swallowed up in victory. And death 
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 
second death. I ask, are not these scriptures posi- 
tive, if not, please tell me what the word positive 
means. “The inspired writers are troubled at this 
point and are driven to the use of material figures 
to describe the final consummation of the spiritual 
kingdom.” I will say that here the preacher slipped 


136 


Strong Delusions 


up badly ; we cannot measure spiritual things 
by material figures. Jesus compared literal things 
to his kingdom, but never measured by them. Then 
as to the word consummation. It does not apply 
to the spiritual kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. For so 
an entrance shall be ministered unto you abun- 
dantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. The kingdoms of this world 
are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. I do 
not know how to show the end of the spiritual king- 
dom, which has no end, by material figures which 
have an end. The word consummation will ap- 
ply to the world or any of the material forces but 
not to Christ’s kingdom. He says, “He does not 
know whether all men will yield to him.” God 
says that every knee shall bow and every tongue 
shall confess. This verse is a direct answer to his 
inquiry, but does not cover the ground of his 
doubted sentiment; but to cover the whole face of 
his question I will say that all men are not and will 
not receive the kingdom of heaven, as Mr. Detwiler 
well knows. And again they cannot because God 
says that the miry places thereof and the marshes 
thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given 
to salt. And again, as the toes of the feet were 
part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom 
shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And 
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with clay, they 
shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but 
they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is 
not mingled with clay. God foresaw that the hu- 
man family would condescend to mingle their seed 
with the seed of the beast or else it would not have 


Strong Delusions 


137 


been necessary to have commanded them, not to 
have done such a thing. “Thou shall not sow thy 
field with mingled seed. Thou shalt not sow thy 
vineyard with divers seeds, lest the fruit of thy 
seed be defiled. They gave him vinegar to drink 
mingled with gall. Thou shalt not lie with any 
beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any 
woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto ; it 
is confusion. And if a man lie with a beast he shall 
surely be put to death, and ye shall slay the beast. 
And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie 
down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman and the 
beast. They shall surely be put to death; their 
blood shall be upon them. It is written that the 
mingled seed shall be destroyed.” Mr. Detwiler 
says that he “knows that in the windup that the 
kingdom of Jesus Christ will absolutely dominate 
all kingdoms, because there is no hope in any of 
these other kingdoms, that he has been discussing. 
And any nation or any man or world that is allied 
with His is going to come out victorious. Te knows 
that. He says there are some fearful things that 
my Lord said about men who love darkness rather 
than light, and live in opposition to his kingdom. 
He says he looks on men in their degraded corrup- 
tion, and wonders if they will utterly perish, and 
how it could be possible they could exist in an eter- 
nal hell. I wonder if there is not something hid 
down deep in their dark hearts and spirits that may 
be called forth in some other world by the mighty 
voice of this Jesus of mine, and they shall be 
brought back again to the right and the light, but I 
do not know about these things, I cannot tell.” He 
says he does not know about these things ; I know if 
he does not preach different doctrine to what he has 


138 


Strong Delusions 


preached in this sermon, that he will find out such 
things as this, and he will have to test the existence 
of an eternal hell, and find out such things as this, 
and he will find wailing, weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. This will be a tough way to find out. Dan- 
iel Webster said in his day, that experience taught 
a dear school, but fools would not learn at any 
other. Now, if Mr. Detwiler cannot learn by read- 
ing the plain Word of God; and then tell it like it 
is, I reckon he will have to go to that school that 
Mr. Webster refers to. And it will be long and 
costly. I can only say Oh Lord, have mercy, have 
mercy. Whether my Jesus can call forth a soul for 
some hidden thing in their hearts after they are 
sent to hell — such stuff, such cursed stuff from a 
Methodist pulpit. There is no need of bringing any 
text of Scripture to offset it; for such contradic- 
tions offset themselves. But I will say that God says 
that all who were not found written in the book of 
life were cast into the lake of fire, where their worm 
dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And what 
is the use for him or any other man to be preaching 
to save souls, and himself floating around on a raft 
of unbelief or cross statements of his own, and con- 
tradicting the Bible, or God’s word. He had better 
stop it. If Mr. Detwiler, or any other man that 
reads God’s word, and believes what God says, he 
can know and does know just as well about this 
eternal damnation as he does about the eternal sal- 
vation of the souls of men. For God tells us what 
are the consequences of sin, and of righteousness in 
such plain and positive language that even a child 
can understand it. And then we have the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit, if we will accept him. Then af- 
ter saying that he does not know about these things, 


Strong Delusions 


139 


he cannot tell, he said that a man was taking a fear- 
ful risk not to be allied with Jesus. “It is allegi- 
ance to his standard, or anarchy and hell in this 
universe forever.” In the sentiment of this state- 
ment, he leaves his idea, very conclusive, and terse ; 
that hell is in this universe forever. This is un- 
doubtedly a skeptical idea. The skeptic, or the 
infidel says that all the hell that ever will be is 
right here now; and there is no hell hereafter. 
This is what Mr. Detwiler infers when he says that 
it is hell in this universe forever, and is very cun- 
ning and subtile in using the word forever. This 
is the word that God uses in assuring us that he 
will never destroy the world again with water. 
But seed time and harvest, and day and night, and 
summer and winter, cold and heat shall not cease 
while the earth remaineth. So you see that it is 
very conclusive that the sentiment of his doctrine 
is that there is no eternal hell hereafter. Now in 
the last paragraph of Mr. Detwiler’s sermon, as to 
where Jesus planted his feet, and nowhere else, 
which I have fully explained, he says: “He has 
planted his standard there, and there it will re- 
main.” The two words that he uses here, forever 
and remain , convey an indefinite time, leading, 
with the general trend of his theme, may be shorter 
or longer, while this universe remains it cannot 
mean anything else. And then he winds up by 
saying that the father has decreed that in the dis- 
pensation of the fullness of time he will gather to- 
gether in one, all things in Christ ; both which are 
in heaven, and which are on earth even in him. 
And when we gather ourselves there, and money 
bows down, then money will take its place as the 
servant of God, and the servant of man. When 


140 


Strong Delusions 


political power bows itself down, laws will be re- 
duced to the minimum and peace and harmony will 
prevail among men. And when men bow down 
their intellects to the cross of Christ and recognize 
that high above all that men can think and dream 
lie the great, clear, luminous revelations of the 
spirit of God that enters into the peasant’s heart 
as well as into the philosopher’s spirit, then we 
shall have reached a place where men are saved by 
faith and not by sight, and the kingdom not of this 
world, will be established.” After saying he does not 
know whether all men will yield to him, he says in 
this last paragraph that when the money power 
and the political power bend themselves down that 
money will serve God, and law will be reduced to 
its minimum and all will be peace. I will confess, 
that I do not know what he means by the word 
minimum here, as to the law, and I don’t suppose 
he knows, for he says he don’t know about things 
that are much plainer than what this conveys. And 
when men’s intellects bow to the cross of Christ then 
we shall have reached a place where men are saved 
by faith and not by sight. Has anyone ever been 
saved by sight that you know of? His language 
here conveys a positive idea, that we have not yet 
come to a place that we are truly saved by faith, 
but by sight. I think he must be saved by sight, if 
I should judge by his sermon. And in all this 
twisted and knotty and lengthy, and most erro- 
neus description of the kingdom of Heaven, he says 
that this is the way it will be established. The 
sentiment of this sermon is, that the people that 
lived under the law attained to as high literally 
in all the human forces, as they can or ever will 
go. Secondly, that Jesus was like any other man, 


Strong Delusions 


141 


and was looking for him a job of some importance, 
and looked all over these attainments or forces 
that had been accomplished, and wrought to their 
full limit and said, no, I will not go there. And 
then, because he was a little sharper than any 
other man living, he espied his opportunity to 
grasp the higher idea of the spiritual kingdom. 
And since he was going to build a different estab- 
lishment, he must have a different platform to set 
his feet on. So he secured for that the spiritual 
forces of the universe, and he placed his feet there, 
and nowhere else. Then after he got the thing to 
rolling, he felt around to see where his kingdom 
or his subjects were going to land, and decided 
that they could not stand an eternal hell of fire 
and brimstone, and he let them off with a hell for- 
ever, in this universe, and don’t say anything 
about those that obey him, what he is going to give 
these. He has simply conquered the world, and 
now he is looking for another job. This looks just 
like his sermon. 

To show how erroneous and blasphemous 
this delusive stuff is, I will tell in the Words 
of God how the end of this world will be and the 
establishment of God’s kingdom will be; though 
I have given in plain Bible words, in other places 
within this book, that you cannot be deceived; 
then any reader can take a Teacher’s Bible, with 
Concordance, and refer to His second coming and 
read for yourselves. His second coming will be 
on this wise. Immediately after the tribulation of 
those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be 
shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of the Son 


142 


Strong Delusions 


of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of 
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man 
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and 
great glory. And he shall send his angels with a 
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather 
together his elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other. But of that day and 
hour no man knoweth, no, not the angels of heaven, 
but my father only. But as the days of Noah 
were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man 
be. For as in the days that were before the flood 
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giv- 
ing in marriage, until the day that Noah entered 
into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and 
took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the 
Son of Man be. Mr. Detwiler published another 
sermon in this same paper, and referred to a 
good class of people that lived just outside 
the bounds of his church and said that he could 
not reach them by his preaching, but said that “God 
was going to raise up a class of preachers that 
would reach them.” My idea is that if God raises 
up a family of preachers that will reach this class 
of good people ; if he raises them up after his ordi- 
nary or material plan, that he will have to raise 
up parallel with them another set of this same kind 
of people, or his preachers will not have anybody 
to preach to. Then again, if Mr. Detwiler is 
preaching the gospel of the Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, to this class of people, and cannot 
reach them, what do you suppose this new class of 
preachers is going to preach to their hearers to 
reach them? I think that Mr. Detwiler presumes 
that idea; perhaps very suggestive to humanity, 
but not to God. My idea about this thing is that 


Strong Delusions 


143 


if this class of people cannot be reached by the gos- 
pel preached by Christ’s ministry now, that as these 
go out at the end of this generation, he will hardly 
raise up another generation of a different capacity. 
He made no such a change before the flood, neither 
did he before the destruction of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, but he gave the wicked warning, by those 
of his servants, that lived right along with them, 
and that is the case with this people, if we do not 
heed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we 
will be caught in the same wrathful anger of God’s 
destruction, that those people were. And this gos- 
pel, of the Lord Jesus Christ, is fully set forth in 
our Old and New Testaments, of the revelations of 
God, through the Holy Ghost, by holy men in the 
past, or former days, and by His Son Jesus Christ 
in these latter days. And no man has any right to 
preach any Gospel besides, and any man that as- 
sumes to preach any other, God will send them 
into outer darkness, and there shall be wailing and 
gnashing of teeth. If we cannot tell God’s word 
just as it is we had better keep our mouths shut; 
we had better listen than to offer the sacrifice of 
fools. 


144 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XIV. 

From Eden to Eden. 

EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON BY MR. WAGGENER. 

In reading a book, published in 1889, composed 
by J. H. Waggener, this being the twentieth edi- 
tion and as many as twenty thousand published, 
and notwithstanding he is a great scholar, and a 
man of great thinking capacity, which seems to be 
only the worse for the public, as he can have the 
more influence. In Chapter Fourteen, page 181, 
he said that “It is surely absurd to suppose that 
the great boon of immortality and eternal life would 
be conferred on the saints of God, and that after- 
ward they should stand to be judged. Again, 
Christ is specially the advocate of his people, and 
it is unreasonable to suppose that he would cease 
his work as an advocate, an intercessor, or priest, 
before the decision of the judgment was rendered 
and leave them to pass through the ordeal of that 
awful event without a priest, without an advocate. 
Revelation Fourteen proves clearly that the judg- 
ment precedes the coming of Christ and the resur- 
rection; and the resurrection of the righteous to 
glory and immortality is proof that the judgment 
has been fully decided in their favor, while the fact 
that the rest of the dead remain in their graves 
during the one thousand years, the fact that they 
are not raised when the righteous are, is sufficient 
proof that their cases have been decided against 
them.” The above is no truth at all. It seems 
that there are but few men that carry the whole 
teachings of the Bible in their comments. Now 


Strong Delusions 


145 


God says: “He that believeth on Him is not con- 
demned, but he that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed in the name 
of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the 
condemnation, that light is come into the world, 
and men love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds were evil.” The statement is very 
plain that the righteous will be raised first, and 
the second death will have no power over them, 
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and 
shall reign with him a thousand years. And he 
speaks about those that remain, will be caught up 
in the air and ever be with God. And all that is 
wicked will be cast alive into a lake of fire, burn- 
ing with brimstone. And after these things have 
taken place, and the thousand years have ended, 
the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and 
death and hell delivered up the dead which were 
in them, and the small and great stand before 
God; and the books were open, and another book 
was opened which is the Book of Life: and the 
dead were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books, and they were judged every 
man according to their works. Now, how Mr. 
Waggener could conceive that God could judge the 
dead before the resurrection, I am not able to see; 
and again, the spirit of man cannot be judged 
without the body is very inevitable, because the 
spirit is entirely controlled by the body; the spirit 
lives by our consent, or dies by our consent, and 
there will be no fairness in judging the spirit with- 
out the body. As he refers to that great ordeal 
that the people of God would have to come 
through, if J esus were to leave his heavenly seat of 
the priesthood; and that he contends that had to 
10 


146 


Strong Delusions 


be cleansed for the sins of the people, and then 
they would have no intercessor for to keep them 
through that trying time. I understand after the 
resurrection there will be no more death nor pain 
nor crying, nor trouble of any sort for all the right- 
eous, but joy and gladness exceedingly. 

Of course God knows before he comes who is 
good, and who is bad, and will separate them ac- 
cordingly, as he has said, and this reign of one 
thousand years on earth will be the establishment 
of his kingdom here on earth, to fulfill the proph- 
ecy that was spoken, that all things shall be put 
under his feet. Then he tries to show in a way 
that preaching the judgment is a very important 
part of the gospel, and refers to the cleaning of 
the holy place in the sanctuary in heaven, for the 
blotting out of the sins of the saints; and says: 
Time does not cease with that announcement. He 
says that another warning is going forth to the 
world, while our High Priest is engaged in judg- 
ing the dead. Still there is opportunity to make 
our calling and election sure.” When a man gets 
tangled he need to stop but there are such a few 
men that can keep straight. Just think of people 
having another chance of making their calling and 
election sure while Jesus is judging the dead. All 
but the saved have been turned or cast into hell, 
fire and brimstone, and have been there for one 
thousand years, and as they are going into the lake 
of fire and brimstone alive, the separation taking 
place at his appearing. Now we can readily see 
the fire consume their mortal bodies away, and 
their spirits remain in the fire until the judgment 
that takes place at the end of the thousand years. 
The righteous will enjoy the full one thousand 


Strong Delusions 


147 


years of peace; while the wicked are in the flames 
of hell during this time of peace. And then all 
the dead shall stand before God for the judgment 
which takes place at the end of the one thousand 
years. He refers to the “measure of the punish- 
ment of each individual, whether with few or many 
stripes will be decided by Christ and the saints, 
during the thousand years, in which the unright- 
eous remain in their graves.” This signifies that 
it will require counsel and much adjustment in 
the judgment. I will say that God, and his Christ, 
will not need the testimony of the saints in decid- 
ing the amount of punishment to be inflicted 

on the wicked or in deciding the justifica- 

tion of the righteous; seeing that all our deeds 
are written upon the table of our hearts ; 

and with an iron pen so that all can see for 

themselves that the judgment is clean and right- 
eous altogether. And since there will be oppor- 
tunity, and knowing there is, why not all these 
that remain, and why not the dead too, that are not 
saved in the first resurrection, be given that last 
opportunity to make their calling and election 
sure. It would certainly be fair to give all of 
these the same chance. There is not any sense and 
reason in such erroneous ideas as is advanced by 
Mr. Waggener. Mr. Waggener says that “it is 
strange but it is not against the adversary that we 
have to defend our old Bible, but it is against those 
who confess to his divine personality, and who ac- 
cept a great deal of his teachings ; make such errors 
as to cover the light, so obscure that they delude 
themselves and all who have them in his sentiment.” 
And I can say of him, he is fully deluded as to 
Christ’s second coming, and has sent his doctrine, 


148 


Strong Delusions 


out to 20,000 people, and perhaps many more have 
read and believe the doctrine of it. I can say that 
the religion of today is very much become a fash- 
ion of each one’s nation, and creed, something to 
suit his own pleasant taste. Anything that con- 
tradicts the Word of God, certainly amounts to 
false teaching; and Mr. Waggener’s teaching of the 
judgment does surely contradict the Bible state- 
ment, and he contradicts his own statement, by 
saying in another place that there will be but one 
judgment day. If all are judged in one day there 
will be no time for to be making our calling and 
election sure. He says again that “rewards of the 
righteous and the wicked are so essentially differ- 
ent that it is impossible that they should be re- 
warded in the earth at or during the same time.” 
I refer to the Word of God here to show his weak- 
ness. But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, 
with men this is impossible, but with God all 
things are possible. Is anything too hard for the 
Lord? I know that thou canst do everything, and 
that no thought can be withholden from thee. Ah 
Lord God ! behold, thou hast made the heaven and 
the earth by thy great power, and stretched out 
thy arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. 
For with God nothing shall be impossible. If it is 
marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this peo- 
ple in these days, should it also be marvelous in 
mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts? This is an 
abundant proof, that he can reward the righteous 
and the wicked, both in the earth at once, if he 
wishes and will do it. Then he asserts that the 
saints of God will inherit this earth forever. “There 
is no question as to the eternal duration of the 
kingdom of Christ, on this earth.” He then goes 


Strong Delusions 


149 


on, and locates the place where the New Jerusalem 
will come down from heaven, and locate on the old 
site, where the city of Jerusalem stood, or rather 
the mount, but says that the mount will be clave 
apart, and prepared for the foundations to stand, 
and he uses the Scripture in abundance to show 
that he is right, proving his sayings, which go to 
prove the common proverb, used by the people, that 
you can prove anything by the Bible. And I be- 
lieve you can, if you will disconnect it, and gather 
up parts to suit your own idea. But how base and 
low can people get, and how reproachful can men 
live? How offensive people become unto the mas- 
ter who made and created them ! How disgusting 
people can become by transforming God’s word 
and making it a lie? No one can tell, no one will 
know, until it will be too late. Mr. Waggener’s 
idea of the New Jersusalem being on the mountain, 
at the old site of the ancient Jerusalem, plainly 
shows his conception of the revealed Word of God. 
If we will take the figures given in God’s word, 
and calculate, we will find that the New Jerusa- 
lem is three billion three hundred and seventy- 
five million cubic miles inside the walls, and 
many times the size of this world, but accord- 
ing to our calculations, the whole square of this 
earth would be sufficiently large for the base or 
foundation of the New Jerusalem. And just think 
of such size building as is referred to, sit- 
ting on the old site of the old temple of God. 
How vague, how unsettled and little man adjusts 
himself to the facts of the teachings of God’s word ; 
and as I have previously said, just blurt out any- 
thing that comes from their impure heart. Any 
contradiction of the Bible is tinged with infidelism 


150 


Strong Delusions 


and unbelief, whether done on purpose or by not 
knowing, and we will be held responsible for such 
errors. For God says that the way is so plain 
that the wayfaring man, though he be a fool, need 
not err therein. Then if we seek wisdom, and ob- 
tain it from heaven, there seems the least excuse 
of all, for us to live in error. Seeing that the fool- 
ish, wayfaring man can keep in the strait and 
narrow way, let us all that profess to be followers 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, begin right now and read 
God’s word carefully and prayerfully, and then 
tell just what we can remember of it, distinctly, 
and no more, and then we will live, without erring 
from the truth, and this will bring about union, 
that can come no other way. And this is the sen- 
timent of his statement when he prays that we 
may be one, even as We are One : I in them and thou 
in me; and they all one in us. That the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me into the world. 
Now will we do this? If not why not? All the 
conflicts and cross contradictions arise by people 
getting all their thoughts outside the Bible. Now 
this is Mr. Waggener’s case. Now he refers to 
second Peter, third chapter. He says that Peter 
says in that chapter that “there are three distinct 
earths or worlds ; he says that the earth was 
changed by the flood of raging waters, that the 
whole face of the earth was changed. And when 
Noah looked out of the Ark, it was all a scene of 
desolation utterly unlike anything that he had 
ever seen before.” I say that if there was material 
difference in the form, or in any of the qualities of 
the earth, God has not revealed it unto us any- 
where, but to the contrary he shows by his com- 
mand to Noah that it was the same in every re- 


Strong Delusions 


151 


spect by giving him the same command that he 
gave Adam. And God blessed Noah and his sons, 
and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and 
replenish the earth. And the fear of you, and the 
dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth 
and every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth 
upon the face of the earth, and upon all the fishes 
of the sea; into your hands are they delivered. 
The command to Noah, and his sons is very near, 
word for word, with that given to Adam, showing 
that all the substances were just the same, that were 
in existence from the beginning, and if not, then 
the whole truth about the creation is not told. But 
where the truth is not told is in Mr. Waggener’ s 
statement. Now he refers to the Word of God as 
saying that the earth should wax old as a garment. 
“And the earth shows unmistakable signs of age.” 
I wonder if Mr. Waggener ever saw the earth in 
former years? Or I wonder where he has seen 
much change during his time? And how much 
change has he seen? He said “unmistakable 
signs.” The man ought to point out some of these 
changes, so that the rest of us could know of them. 
The stars fell — did that change things much? Or 
did things get back about like they were? I won- 
der if Mr. Waggener knows that matter cannot be 
destroyed? Nor ever will be as long as there are 
good people on the earth, to keep it salted. Here 
Mr. Waggener refers to some of God’s great works, 
which he displayed in Asia. He said “the earth 
was first peopled over there. After the flood Asia 
was again first peopled. There man fell ; there the 
wonders of God were displayed in his dealings 
with patriarchs, and prophets; there Abraham was 
called, and there he offered up Isaac; and there 


152 


Strong Delusions 


the Son of God offered up himself.” Now, I won- 
der if these things changed this earth materially, 
if so, how much and where? Is there anyone who 
has been living long enough to observe any change? 
I judge not. Now to show Mr. Waggener’s falli- 
bility, he says since all these changes that the earth 
has undergone, that it is still under the curse. So 
he admits in this answer that there is no change at 
all, for he says the change wrought by the flood 
left the earth still bringing forth thorns, and this- 
tles. “But when the earth is melted, with fervent 
heat, and all the works therein are burned up, it 
will come forth renovated, renewed, without a 
trace of sin, or the curse remaining. And thus 
says the prophet.” And he adds that as I have 
quoted before, there can be no question as to the 
eternal duration of the kingdom of Christ upon 
this earth.” And then quotes a verse of Scripture 
spoken to David of Christ’s rule on King David’s 
throne forever, to prove his erroneous idea. Then 
continues a long preamble about the New Jerusa- 
lem coming down from heaven, and locating as I 
have shown, on the same old site of the old Jerusa- 
lem, just as though it would be seemingly a small 
town, in one corner of the earth. He signifies or 
says that this earth is going to be the abiding place 
of the saved, forever and eternally, and in another 
place says when this “earth is melted it will be lit- 
erally a sea of fire and that will be the lake of fire 
into which the ungodly are to be cast.” These two 
statements are not consistent but perfectly con- 
tradictory. How in the name of common sense can 
the earth be left a sea of fire and at the same time 
be a perfect paradise or heaven. Such contradic- 
tions! Now it would take another book written 


Strong Delusions 


153 


the size of his book to correct the errors that are 
so erroneously set forth in this book that are just 
as much contradictory as this. 

I met Mr. James Cole, Friday night, August 
30th, he being sent out by the International Bible 
Students’ Association of Brooklyn, N. Y., who is 
advertising himself as a Bible student, making a 
tour over the world. The object of this Associa- 
tion is to stimulate Bible study by educating all 
Christians of all denominations to a better and 
deeper understanding of God’s word. In meeting 
this gentleman, I was a little disappointed; and, 
passing greetings, I remarked that I saw his pic- 
ture, and he was not as handsome as his photo- 
graph. And it was so; the expression of his face 
and his countenance looked a little foreign, and 
hidden and cold, fully carrying out the sentiment 
of his belief, and his whole discourse, that he de- 
livered with it. And he is a great big man, I will 
say about two hundred and twenty-five pounds, 
has a positive, slow movement, as though he was 
moving among the dying and the dead; with an 
elephant-like, slow motion. After being slightly 
introduced, he announced his subject with some 
reference, “What is death? Why is death? Will 
death ever cease?” Then led a very intelligent 
prayer, very finely worded, but was minus any 
power whatever; sounded much like he was pray- 
ing with the dying and the dead, with scant hope of 
saving anyone. Then entered into a discussion of 
his subject, and showed how we are in a dying con- 
dition now, and continued dying until the end of 
life, and could not get along apparently, without 
using the word “life.” He seemed not to admit that 
anyone is living at all; but we all are contained 


154 


Strong Delusions 


in three places, the earth, purgatory and heaven; 
leaving all without any description or adequate 
idea of our continued existence, only while here on 
earth, of which he said we are not living, neither 
are we dead, and illustrated his idea, by saying 
that we say if a man is in Greensboro that he is 
living in Greensboro, but if he moved to another 
city, that he was living in another town, but that 
is a mistake, for he is not living at either place, 
but dying at these places, for he is only one-tenth 
living and nine- tenths dead. He then went into a 
very precise description of the making or the for- 
mation of Adam, and showed how God made and 
formed him out of clay, in a very precise way, as 
though he were there and had seen it done, and 
pointed to his mouth, nose and eyes and ears, but 
had no life yet. And then he breathed into his 
nostrils and he received life ; and keeping this part 
of the performance of giving life, very carefully to 
itself, or separate from his becoming a living soul, 
and then he said that it read thus: “And he 
became a living soul,” as though he were 
some time becoming a living soul, this being 
in a very evolutionized manner, that he came up. 
“And further showed that man could say he 
had a soul as well as he could say that 
he had a man, for he is combined all a living 
soul. Now he is talking direct to us, and says a 
living soul, and only finished telling that we are 
dying and dead, or nine-tenths dead.” Or, as the 
old adage is, one foot in the grave and the other on 
the earth, he said. “Then dwelling on the idea of 
Adam being in eternity with God, and knew noth- 
ing about death, and said God took him, and put 
him in a garden, and his having no knowledge of 


Strong Delusions 


155 


sin; that the Devil came around and got him into 
sin.” And then he began to die his death, not being 
a death of a twenty-four-hour day; but the death 
of nine hundred and thirty years, or one of God’s 
days, lacking only sixty years. And at the end of 
this day of God’s, Adam breathed out. The Devil 
being the institution of death, for he was a mur- 
derer from the beginning. God’s not being, for he 
never takes a man’s life,” but the Devil being the 
sole cause, and then signifies by the general trend of 
his whole idea, expressed, that the Devil murdered 
Adam, a little at a time, for nine hundred and 
thirty years. And this idea was embodied all 
through his whole discourse, concerning our pres- 
ent being. But he asserts, with great emphasis, 
that there is no eternal hell, and all that the 
preachers preach about it is delusion, and denies 
that it is mentioned in the Old or New Testament. 
But common death, by sin, is the only penalty pro- 
nounced against man, although he said there is 
nothing surer than death, and no one would deny 
that. He further said that there was a little spark 
of life left in Adam, and it was transmitted down 
the line of posterity and that is where we come in 
and get our little one- tenth of life. Now after 
telling all he knew, apparently, about the liv- 
ing and dying and dead, and making of man, as 
was told by words very carefully gotten up, and 
prepared for the purpose of leading his hearers to 
believe what he said, he said that Jesus came to 
take away this death of dying, and he breathed it 
out on the cross in like manner that God breathed 
breath in Adam, when he made him, and it was ab- 
surd, to say that Jesus cried out so lamentably, as is 


156 


Strong Delusions 


generally preached, and showed with his hands, by 
putting them forward very gently, that it was easy. 
He says that there will be a resurrection of the 
dead, and God will come and get his elect; for 
there is an elect, but not such an elect as some 
people claim, children a span long in hell, for there 
is no such place as a hell burning with fire, for 
there is no saving property in fire; and said that if 
a man’s wife had a pound of butter and wished to 
preserve it, that the husband would not tell her 
to put it in the fire, but would tell her to put the 
butter in ice, and that would keep the butter in- 
definitely. So you see that Mr. Cole signified by his 
parable that God will have millions and millions 
and billions of tons of ice, to pack us away in, 
rather than to put us in hell fire. Now, Mr. Cole, 
you must not tell the negroes of this change, or you 
will have no negroes there, because they have an 
abhorrence to icebergs. And how are you going to 
do without them there, especially in election time? 
Mr. Roosevelt, and you, will certainly miss them 
at that time. “And his elect will be in the thousand 
years with Jesus, or one of God’s days, and the 
Devil will be chained during that time, and there 
is a free grace for all ; and all these that fail to be 
of the elect and saved, will come up here, and get 
this free grace, for the Devil being chained, there 
is nothing to prevent them from accepting this 
grace;” so you see that he, Mr. Cole, is going 
to give us a second chance to be saved, “and said 
this earth will abide forever, and ever, and every 
man will abide under his own vine and fig tree.” 
This man denounced all scripture, that is declared 
by Jesus Christ, as gospel for the salvation of our 


Strong Delusions 


157 


souls. And he scanned over the Bible, in a most 
skeptical and serpentile manner, to get scripture 
of broken sentiment, for to prove his most subtile, 
satanic, cursed rot of all rottenness that could be 
instigated or incited by any man, or body of men, 
led by the Devil, captive at bis will. He must be 
one of the beasts that the Devil gave bis seat to. I 
will give a few Bible sentiments : And if tby band 
offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter 
heaven into life maimed, than, having two bands, 
to go into bell, into the fire that never shall be 
quenched; where their worm dietb not and the 
fire is not quenched. Wherefore, if tby band or 
tby foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them 
from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life 
halt or maimed, rather than having two bands or 
two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. For be- 
hold, the Lord will come with fire and with bis 
chariots like a whirlwind, to render bis anger with 
fury, and bis rebuke with flames of fire. Behold, 
I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour ev- 
ery green tree in thee, and every dry tree ; the flam- 
ing flame shall not be quenched. Who can stand be- 
fore bis indignation, and who can abide in the 
fierceness of bis anger? His fury is poured out 
like fire. The mountains quake at him, and the 
bills melt, and the earth is burned at bis presence, 
yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Every 
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn 
down and cast into the fire : and shall cast them in 
a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and 
gnashing of teeth. Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and 
bis angels. Now this man told a lie in saying that 


158 


Strong Delusions 


the Apostle Paul said not a word about torment. 
Here is what Paul said: When the Lord Jesus 
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty an- 
gels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with ev- 
erlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord, and from the glory of his power. But a cer- 
tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery in- 
dignation, which shall devour the adversaries. And 
his ministers a flame of fire. But the heavens and 
the earth, which are now by the same word, kept 
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of ungodly men. These above 
scriptures are a few of the positive statements of 
God, in both Old and New Testaments alike, that 
there is a place of eternal fire, for all that disobey 
God. Mr. Cole puts strong emphasis on the eighth 
verse of third chapter of Second Peter, it follow- 
ing the seventh verse, in same chapter, that I have 
last quoted above. So anbody can see that he 
knows better, than to say that the New Testament 
is minus of these scriptures. What I have to say is 
that Mr. Cole will wake up at the resurrection of 
the dead, at the last day, only to meet the wrathful 
condemnation of the fierceness of a sin-avenging 
God; to be driven into an eternal fire, mixed with 
brimstone for such false teaching, and contradic- 
tions, of God's word, and all that believe such fal- 
lacious stuff will be driven into hell fire. These 
above quotations of eternal fire will be found in 
Mark, Matthew, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Nahum, 2d Thes- 
salonians and Hebrews, just where Mr. Cole said 
there is nothing said of them. 


Strong Delusions 


159 


I want to say as a warning that there are more 
than six hundred divisions in the churches of today, 
and all these have a different creed of doc- 
trines, and then you cannot hardly find any in 
these different creeds, that agree among them- 
selves; nearly every man has some new fangled be- 
lief of his own. Now this is just what Jesus fore- 
told when he was here in the flesh. And he said 
that it is the sign of his second coming, so we had 
better be watching. 


160 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XV. 

The Origin of Sin. 

THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE’S COMMENTS. 

The Sunday School lesson comment on the origin 
of sin by the Western North Carolina Christian Ad- 
vocate extracted from the New York Christian Ad- 
vocate, January 16, 1913. He says : “The smooth 
and ingratiating voice of the serpent makes the one 
forbidden thing the extremely fascinating thing. 
The temptation is threefold. Body, mind and 
spirit feel the strain of desire, and the temptation 
becomes the fall.” This seems to be a perfectly sane 
idea so far ; except the idea of that growing desire 
he refers to later on ; but he then swerves from this 
to Robert Browning’s youthful poem, Pauline, and 
tries to show that this sin originated in the indi- 
vidual itself, that the man is his own fate, and 
says : “It is deeply and forever true that a man’s 
essential problem is not to be found in his sur- 
roundings but in his own heart. He can not run 
away from his battle because he is both the fighter 
and the fight. The environment gives the form 
of the conflict, but the fact that there can be a con- 
flict at all, and its essential meaning grow out of 
the nature of the man.” Here he conveys the idea 
that God made and created the man, and He put a 
fighting principle in him so that the fall of man 
was unavoidable and he was bound to fall. 

But there is no doctrine that can be advanced 
that is more erroneous and false, and for the 
church organ to assent to such a statement seems 
to aggravate and make the doctrine so many times 
worse. Charging the great Creator with putting a 


Strong Delusions 


161 


principle in his creatures that is sinful, to say the 
least of it. There is no such thing. God made man 
upright. He made him good and very good. You 
had just as well say that God has the unrighteous 
spirit in him as to say that he created man 
with it in him. Then think of the man fighting 
himself. Did you ever see an army put in battle 
array when there was no enemy? or did you find 
any revealed word that refers to any conflict be- 
tween man or beast or creeping thing before the fall 
of man? The fact, the whole truth is, there was 
none. The two opposing forces, good and bad, met 
by some indirect cause, and the devil overpersuaded 
the woman by his subtile atrocity, and made her be- 
lieve by pointing to the fine species of the fruit on 
the tree of good and evil that she consented to try 
it as food, hence disobeying God, and then the fall. 
And this was murder, and here is where he gets his 
name, a murderer, from the beginning. A liar and 
the father of it. He further says, “It is well to re- 
member this as we read the third chapter of Gen- 
esis. The^serpent was the voice of temptation but 
not its cause. All the serpents one can imagine 
would have been helpless had there not been some- 
thing in the woman that responded to the 
serpent’s voice. The serpent became the woman’s 
tongue by awaking vital questions, and thoughts 
ready to rise in her own mind.” Think of 
reading the third chapter of Genesis. There is 
nothing in the third chapter of Genesis or any- 
where in the Holy Bible that reads like this, or 
even infers anything like this stuff. Just think 
of one’s being safe in the garden with as many ser- 
pents as we can imagine; he says if there had not 
been something in the woman to respond to them. 
11 


162 


Strong Delusions 


How could one be safe surrounded by serpents? 
If there had been no serpent in her own heart she 
would have been perfectly safe in spite of the ser- 
pent in the garden. He says the serpent became 
the woman’s tongue and she had a serpent in her 
heart. How did these things occur? or how did 
these things become transformed into serpents? or 
how did the serpent come in her heart to respond to 
the serpent’s voice? Then in the outset these pa- 
pers say it was the devil’s smooth and ingratiating 
voice that makes the one forbidden thing the su- 
premely fascinating thing. Then down here he 
says that the Devil became the woman’s tongue. 
Surely then it was the woman’s voice for it was 
her tongue, then it was the woman’s serpent that 
beguiled her and caused her to sin. Not the Devil 
and Satan, that old serpent that caused war in 
heaven. Who ever heard of such rot, such cursed 
stuff? This is too bad for the infidel, much more 
to the shame of the church claiming to be God’s 
people. Any such sarcastic, reproachful doctrine 
perpetrated by any man or set of men so shame- 
fully, to all good proclaimed, ought to have its por- 
tion with all other hypocrites in the lake that burns 
with fire and brimstone. It seems there are so few 
who can get out of self so as to see how it was with 
our foreparents in the creation. They were made 
pure and upright, and were put in the garden to 
dress it and to keep it, and Satan beguiled the wo- 
man by pointing to the forbidden fruit, and she 
saw that it was good and she ate, hence the fall, 
and when she did eat the spirit of Satan entered 
into the woman. She enticed Adam and he did eat 
and then the spirit of the serpent entered into him 
and this was the cause of the fall. This was done 


Strong Delusions 


163 


by transforming God’s word, and in transforming 
God’s word is where the Devil has had his greatest 
success in entering the hearts of the human fam- 
ily ever since, and is in the heart of every one who 
does not believe God’s word now. .He is in every 
heart that teaches the Bible in any way but in the 
divine sentiment conveyed by God’s own state- 
ment. So you see that the serpent is not only in 
the women of this day, but he is in the men also. 
He is in the hearts of the publishers of this com- 
ment to transform the true Word of God, and 
make it something else, and make it appear that 
the serpent was in the woman’s heart and did not 
enter into her. This is just what the devil wants 
taught, a lie, of course. He seeks those that he has 
not overcome, and I think that he certainly is gain- 
ing a wonderful influence in transforming the true 
w^ord of God. These two editors of these two Chris- 
tian papers skip to and fro and swerve and squirm 
about, and first say that the soft, smooth, insinu- 
ating voice of the serpent did it, then fly on to the 
woman, and say she allowed him to become her 
tongue and she did the work, and then twist around 
and say that she had a serpent in her own heart, 
and it responded to the other serpent that was in 
the midst of the garden, and that is how it was 
done. This lacks a whole lot of being a straight 
tale. Now let us see what God says about the af- 
fair after he traced it back to the first cause. And 
the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou 
hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and 
above every beast of the field; upon thy belly 
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days 
of thy life. This scripture shows to any fair 
minded man that the serpent did this thing. Then 


164 


Strong Delusions 


they say if there had been no serpent in her heart 
she would have been perfectly safe in spite of the 
serpent in the garden. Just think of such an ex- 
pression ; the Devil’s dwelling in the garden of 
paradise with people that were without sin, or 
think of the Devil being in any heavenly place, 
dwelling in, or with, good people. Who ever heard 
tell of such stuff before, and this from the mouth 
of Christ’s church, or claimed to be. Then they 
say “that the first step in the tragedy was the loss 
of faith in God and the beginning of faith in the 
serpent.” God had said, “Ye surely shall die.” 
The serpent said, “Ye surely shall not die.” One 
voice must be believed; one voice must be heeded. 
How could it ever happen that the woman would 
doubt God and believe the Devil? Is the story 
phychologically possible at this point? Here he 
asks the question, is it possible that the story at 
this point is psychological. The same as to say it 
is in the soul of the woman. You see he doubts his 
own argument and no wonder; when one gets so far 
from right that they don’t believe themselves it is 
time to stop, look and listen for danger is inevita- 
ble. He says, the truth is that every day the same 
thing is happening before our eyes. “Men lose 
their faith in the good and retain their faith in the 
bad ;” because the Devil is in us. That is no reason 
that the Devil was in Adam and Eve before the ser- 
pent beguiled the woman in the garden. For we 
are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, 
so it becomes a part of our nature, but was not 
theirs before the fall. “If men were as skeptical 
of evil as they are of good we would live in a very 
different world.” Surely, to be sure we would. 
Then all this rot and fallacious stuff would not have 


Strong Delusions 


165 


been written about our first parents. “The thing 
that made it possible for the woman to lose faith in 
God was something which lies very deep in human 
nature. God’s word interfered with her desires, 
the serpent’s word agreed with her desires; it was 
the power of the growing desires and not the elo- 
quence of the serpent which caused the woman to 
turn from that simple and assured acceptance of 
God’s word which was at the base of all her se- 
curity.” Now see how the story contradicts itself; 
in the outset they say, “the smooth and ingratiat- 
ing voice of the serpent makes the one forbidden 
thing the supremely fascinating thing.” Then 
down here they say, “It was the power of a grow- 
ing desire, and not the eloquence of the serpent 
which caused the woman to turn from the simple 
assured acceptance of God’s word which was at 
the base of all her security. I have fully come to 
the conclusion that no man can contradict the Bi- 
ble and not contradict his own doctrine. And an- 
other bad feature of the discussion is he throws 
the cause in the woman’s face or rather lays all the 
blame on her. And why should anyone say it was 
entirely the woman’s fault, and say that the ser- 
pent was in her heart, and furthermore it was her 
tongue. I would suggest that he has had some ex- 
traordinary experience with the female sex that 
has prejudiced him against her. Perhaps he has 
had experience with one that has a serpent in her 
heart, and a serpent’s tongue in her mouth, and 
forms his conclusions and bases his ideas on our 
Mother Eve in accordance. But ever since the fall 
they are not all that sort, some of the most angelic 
people of the earth are our good mothers; and if 
there were no good mothers I doubt very much if 


166 


Strong Delusions 


there would be any good men, for good mothers are 
about the whole source of good men. “A great 
monarch referred to” once said that he could rule 
everything in his dominion except that which was 
under his own hat. We are not told of any hats in 
Eden, but Eve was facing the same problem of 
which this noble European king so tersely spoke.” 
I would like to emphasize the absurd statement of 
any serpent being in Mother Eve’s heart, as of hats 
being in Eden. He says further that “the power 
of a mighty appeal was upon her.” Who brought 
this appeal to bear? Can you tell me? Say, did 
not the serpent? And if he did not who did? There 
was someone talking to the woman, who was it? 
Why the serpent of course. Then he brought this 
mighty appeal to bear; the appeal you are talking 
about. “The tree drew the eye by its beauty. Its 
fruit hanging in rich luxuriousness seemed call- 
ing for someone to pluck it. The voice of the senses 
said, take and eat.” Then there was the hunger 
of an outreaching mind. Knowledge had a lure all 
its own. Here was a short cut to knowledge, and 
such knowledge as could be reached in no other 
way. The voice of a hungry mind said, take and 
eat. Deeper than this there was the upreach of a 
spirit, impatient, full of the beginning of a soaring 
ambition. To be like God seemed a thing of all 
things to be sought. It would surely be better to 
be a God than to obey God. Here Eve is the pro- 
totype of the modern Nietzsche, who declared that if 
there were any gods he could not endure life with- 
out being one. The voice of the ambitious spirit 
cried, “take and eat.” When did all this thinking 
take place and where did the woman obtain so 
many voices and minds? and how does any one 


Strong Delusions 


167 


know of all these thoughts? He charges her with 
being the prototype of modern Nietzsche, who was 
an infidel and did not believe there was a God. 
How could she be the image or likeness of the late 
infidel I am not able to understand, she being about 
six thousands years before him. The likeness al- 
ways following the original, can anybody explain? 
Then man has only one mind and he thinks and 
speaks through this one medium. The voice is the 
conveyance of the thoughts of the heart, through 
this one mind expressed by the tongue; hence, by 
thy words thou art justified and by thy words thou 
art condemned. So you see the fallacy of the argu- 
ment. He says in the outset that it was the ser- 
pent’s voice, and then says it was all her voices 
that did this. “With faith in God losing its hold 
and all these pulsing desires making themselves 
felt, Eve had no source of steadying strength.” 
The same as to say again she was bound to fall, 
and said, “She did not understand that it is like 
God to master desire.” Then she is blameless. 
“She allowed her desires to master her, she lost 
self-control and became the victim of a lawless ap- 
petite of body and mind and soul. Adam shared 
in her indulgence and in that hour license took 
place of law in the garden of Eden. “I ought” was 
dethroned, and “I want” was put in the place of 
power. The reign of ungoverned passion began 
when desire was first put above duty. That is the 
central moral tragedy of the race. “They should 
have said, after the fall this became the central 
moral tragedy of the race, for they had not the 
least idea of any such experience of such things be- 
fore the fall. He also, in this clause puts the whole 
blame on the woman, and with very few exceptions 


168 


Strong Delusions 


leaves the Devil out of the whole circumstance.” In 
the Marble Faun Hawthorne has painted a memor- 
able picture of Donatello, the innocent, and his 
happy life with nature, until a day when a dark 
deed of evil changed all the world to him. His 
eyes were clouded and there were some things 
which he could never see again.” Here he refers to 
other heathen inventions to prove the case of the fall 
of our parents in the garden. These things do not 
apply to them at all before the fall. When they 
fell they were out of paradise. The change was 
at once, hence the discussion does not apply. He 
further says: “Adam and Eve were working out 
the first calculations of moral profit and loss in the 
history of the race. Having lost faith and self- 
control they had something else which was infin- 
itely noble and infinitely precious. They lost their 
innocence. To see all the facts of life with 
pure and honest and unblushing eyes had been 
theirs in the early days of Eden. They did not 
learn any new physical facts after the fall.” 
When were they making these calculations, be- 
fore or after the fall? Well, we will allow it to 
be after the fall since they were pure before, 
and he says if they thought about the life of the 
body at all, then what need had they of working 
out profit and loss to the race? They only lived in 
their own day and doubtless occupied a great deal 
of their time in talking about their former happi- 
ness, and comparing it with their present deplor- 
able, miserable and intolerable condition that they 
had fallen into; and that inevitable death must fol- 
low. Also referring to the angel-like innocence 
that they had, in communication with the Father 
and Great Creator, and how easy and unfortunate 


Strong Delusions 


169 


they were to be beguiled by the serpent, and the 
dreadful shame they experienced after they fell 
with wonder and regret. Certainly they remem- 
bered their unblushing innocence, but they only 
had to bow under the curse that God had pro- 
nounced upon them, and be glad that God in mercy 
let them live physically. It seems to me that they 
must have learned many new physical facts after 
the fall. They learned that by the sweat of the 
face they had to eat bread, and under the curse the 
death of all things prevailed, on all flesh, great and 
small and after death, decomposition; also on all 
vegetables and growing substance. Then the fero- 
cious or fighting nature followed the curse, and 
many more changes that they learned in sorrow. 
They learned pain and crying with affliction, good 
and evil. They learned all about providing for our- 
selves that they did not do before; they learned 
that they were not longer in paradise. “They 
learned to look at familiar facts with soiled and 
polluted eyes. It was the evil eye that changed the 
world.” They certainly learned to look at things 
or facts that were very unfamiliar to them with 
impure and carnal eyes. God says that he cursed 
the earth for man’s sake, and that is what made 
the change, and not the evil eye; he made every- 
thing perishable under the curse. “Before their 
sin they thought nobly, if at all, of the life, of the 
body.” Listen at him doubt. If he does not know 
what has he to do with it. They certainly were 
thinking beings. Adam named all of the original 
creation very intelligently, anyway, and then when 
Eve was brought to him he said, “this is now bone 
of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be 
called woman because she was taken out of man.” 


170 


Strong Delusions 


This looks and sounds like very intelligent thinking, 
and about the body too. Then he says after their 
sin, “they thought ignobly and with hectic over 
emphasis of all these things.” Now listen at him 
again ; these certainly were new physical facts that 
they learned after the fall. Where did they get that 
over emphasis of hectic thought of all these things 
if they did not get them under the fall? Here is 
where they obtained them. Well, then, they are 
new to them under these environments for they 
never had this experience before. Then he says 
that Adam and Eve were working out the first cal- 
culations of moral profit and loss in the history of 
the race. I ask the question, can any intelligent 
person tell how they could calculate on a thing not 
in existence? There had been no race down to 
this time, only the two created persons, and further- 
more no one knows of any written history about 
anything until sixteen hundred years, or about this 
time, after the death of Adam and Eve, and they 
had no way of knowing anything that might ex- 
pire in the future only as God revealed it unto 
them, even when he said I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed ; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise 
his heel. If they understood that this statement 
referred to Jesus, the Son of God, who was to be the 
Son of Mary, it is not revealed to us, whether they 
did or not. He further says: “We need never be 
afraid of the facts of life. They can all be faced with 
steady and lofty purity of thought and feeling. 
We need to fear very much the fevered, impure eye 
which sees in all the world the reflection of its 
own moral disease.” Here he refers again that 
their eyes were what changed the world. He says, 


Strong Delusions 


171 


seeing their own moral disease, God cursed the 
world and changed it for man’s sake. Man being 
condemned for sin could not live, everything being 
good, and God condemned everything to make it 
equal to man, and made all unholy. He says, “We 
need not fear the facts of life, but fear the fevered 
eye.” He further says that facts can be faced with 
steady and lofty purity of thought and feeling. The 
way I see the truth in the matter is that it was the 
fact that Adam and Eve did not want to face ; they 
were naked, and that was a fact, and they hid them- 
selves among the trees of the garden. He says 
himself they were impure afterwards. When a man 
commits any sort of crime that becomes a crime of 
life, which is a fact, say theft, drunkenness, assault 
and murder; is there anyone who can face these 
with any steadiness of thought and feeling? I 
think not. The further a man goes on with such 
argument as this the further from right he gets and 
the more and more he contradicts himself. “There 
had been a desire for forbidden knowledge in the 
garden; the desire was gratified.” Listen, he says 
there had been a desire for forbidden knowledge, 
etc., taking a short cut to get it; such knowledge as 
could not be obtained otherwise. Just like they 
had been longing for such a thing for years or 
months, and so on. There was no such thing 
thought of until the fall and after. All before were 
kept just as pure as they were made, and that was 
clean and pure. Then he goes on with all such 
disrespectful rot as this, saying, “That Adam and 
Eve knew how it felt to be sinners; this was a new 
kind of knowledge to them. They knew humilia- 
tion of the sense of shame, this they had not known 
before. They knew how it felt to be out of har- 


172 


Strong Delusions 


mony with God and afraid of his presence. This, 
too, was an addition to their stock of knowledge. 
Instead of the knowledge of the pure they had the 
knowledge of the impure. Instead of the peace of 
obedience they had the restleness of those who dis- 
obey. Instead of being children of the honest look 
they had become children of the furtive look, or 
roguish look.” They go over all these changed fea- 
tures in Adam’s and Eve’s experience after saying 
that they did not learn any new physical facts after 
the fall. And they surely did not learn these things 
before the fall. “Innocence is not ignorance. It is 
knowledge with the mind kept pure. An innocent 
man may honestly consider all the facts of human 
experience. The loss of innocence was the loss of 
nobility of purpose and purity of heart.” I would 
not like to consider all the facts of human expe- 
rience. Just think of such a proposition. He has 
just said that the environment gives the form of 
the conflict, but the fact that there can be a conflict 
at all and its essential meaning, grow out of the na- 
ture of the man. I ask the question according to 
his own argument, how can a man keep his heart 
and mind pure considering all the facts of life or 
experience? When he iterates that the con- 
flict grows out of the nature of the man. We, 
knowing that all the experiences of man are from a 
carnal standpoint, when even the thought of fool- 
ishness is sin. Consider, seems to be right along 
with doing, at any rate it means to hesitate, to 
doubt, and in business these days the word is un- 
derstood as, I will attend to the matter. Do you 
see that to consider a thing is so near doing it that 
we cannot consider an evil thing, or think such 
things, and be pure. I will give God’s word here on 


Strong Delusions 


173 


this point. Know therefore this day, and consider 
it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven 
above and upon the earth beneath, there is none 
else. This idea goes as far as to even meditate on, 
and doubt, to hesitate. How can one consider all 
the facts of life and be pure? Then he says in the 
fifth paragraph of his comment : “For a time there 
may be a difference between character and envi- 
ronment, but in the long run the environment will 
represent the character.” Then, why the fall of 
Adam and Eve; their environment was continually 
good, pure and holy until after the fall ; we hear of 
no other association of any kind whatever, until 
the serpent talked with Eve, she nor Adam had not 
so much as discerned that the fruit was good for 
food or even had any desirable qualities about it. 
They were perfectly happy and content until then; 
he being a spirit of light transformed the com- 
mandment of God showing them an entirely differ- 
ent meaning, so he enticed the woman and then she 
enticed the man and they turned after another 
God. See, their environment was changed just at 
the fall. Just what the Devil and Satan has been so 
successful in doing among the human family ever 
since. I differ with the writer very much as to the 
title of Edward Bellamy’s famous book, gazing as 
deeply as he could into the currents of human life, 
“Looking Backward” ; saying, “It would seem that 
his title would be a good title for the third chapter 
of the book of Genesis. The author of this Gene- 
sis story would peer back and discover the origin 
of sin.” This statement is just as I have said on 
many occasions, that when a man gets outside the 
bounds of God’s word there are no bounds at all 
to his ends. He here becomes a God instructor or 


174 


Strong Delusions 


a God teacher, forgetting that God himself was the 
originator of this Genesis story; all this part of 
time past with all of its occurrences and events 
about twenty-six hundred years before God re- 
vealed it to his servant Moses, and Moses wrote 
it as God gave him the word, so this is God’s word 
expressed by Moses his servant and if God had not 
been so good in remembering his people and in re- 
vealing all these things unto us, you see we 
would have known nothing about any of these 
things. And God tells us by Moses just when Adam 
and Eve sinned, and just how they sinned and the 
consequences of the fall, in condensed history, and 
just what he desired for us to know about it, and 
expects us to believe what he says. Further, I do 
not see how any man who ever read the Bible or 
studied God’s word in its true light could say any 
such thing as that. The author of this Genesis 
story would peer back and discover the origin of 
sin. When God is revealing himself unto us he 
says his eyes are in every place, and he is every- 
where, and he is from everlasting to everlasting. 
Emphasize the question, how can any man say such 
things about the Great Creator? He further says 
that a man may deny that these things have oc- 
curred in Eden. I would like to know what differ- 
ence it makes with God’s Genesis story if any man 
does not believe it or if all people don’t believe it. 
Does it change the truth of it in the least? Surely it 
does not. “And the more we think of it the more 
we will come to feel that this widespread human 
tragedy of seeing the best and choosing the worst 
must have had a personal beginning in the dim 
dawn of things when human disobedience of recog- 
nized obligation put the poison of sin into the race. 


Strong Delusions 


175 


Beasts have no moral standard, but in the very day 
when a moral standard flashed across his sky and 
man was false to it, sin entered into the world.” 
Here he refers again to the fact that sin had a per- 
sonal beginning, casting a deep criminal reflection 
upon our maker. Saying in the dim dawn of things 
being made and created before man, the same as to 
say that it commenced even in these things, when 
human disobedience of recognized obligations put 
the poison of sin in the life of the race. If this 
phrase does not convey the idea of sin originating 
in man, as he has heretofore in this article stated, 
I would like for some one to show me. And leaves 
the serpent out entirely; saying human disobe- 
dience, even personal disobedience, belonging to 
man or the woman, exclusively, disregarding God’s 
word entirely as to the temptation of the serpent, 
alleging that the whole trouble was in the woman. 
“Beasts have no moral standard, but in the day 
when a moral standard flashed across his sky, and 
man was false to it sin entered into the world.” 
This is the way he said that sin entered into the 
world; when a moral standard, the beasts having 
no moral standard, flashed across his sky, the man 
apparently seeing it would not obey it and stood 
false to it; sin entered into the world. This com- 
ment gets worse, for in the beginning he did admit 
the serpent’s smooth ingratiating voice, but left it 
out as he advanced. So you see this comment is 
worse than a curse, damnable, lying contradictions 
of his own statements and contradictions of God’s 
word. So you see that this comment of the church 
organ gets worse and worse throughout. On the 
principle of hell ; some wicked people have the brass 
to say that if eternity is as long as good people say 


176 


Strong Delusions 


it is that we will get used to hell. But I will say 
that if people develop in eternity what they prac- 
tice here during this life, which is very reasonable 
to say, hell will wax worse and worse throughout 
eternity. And on the other hand heaven will be- 
come more glorious and more and more glorious, 
on and on. What is a man or any set of men that 
they should transform the Word of God or contra- 
dict it in any way? God says my doctrine is pure. 
The Word of the Lord is pure as silver tried in a 
furnace of earth seven times. The Lord will pre- 
serve them from this generation forever. The law 
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The 
testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim- 
ple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
heart. The commandments of the Lord are pure, en- 
lightening the eye. The fear of the Lord is clean, en- 
during forver. The judgments of the Lord are true 
and righteous altogether. More to be desired are 
they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter 
also than honey and the honeycomb; moreover by 
them is thy servant warned, and in keeping them 
there is great reward. Thy word is very pure, 
therefore thy servant loveth thee. And every man 
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even 
as he is pure. Seeing the pureness of God and his 
word, and there are many statements in his word 
besides these; furthermore much evidence that if 
we believe his word that it will purify us,’ and 
purge us from all sin. See to it that we believe all 
he says, and heed to do the same. These two Ad- 
vocates further publish in the next Sunday School 
lesson, “that some atheists have dreamed of a 
country where men would be righteous without be- 
ing religious. Cain is the first of a long line of men 


Strong Delusions 


177 


who have been righteous without being religious. 
Here they, as usual, slip up. Cain had no reli- 
gion, only a form. Religion is Christian faith and 
is practiced in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything 
short of such life is only hypocritical pretense. 
There is nothing that amounts to religion but the 
true worship of God that made us. Any kind of 
worship besides this is sacrilegious, violating sa- 
cred things; no less than profane, very impious. 
Then in this same comment they transform the 
Word of God to make it suit their own pernicious 
ideas. They say, “the answer of the fourth chap- 
ter of the Book of Genesis rings right nobly in our 
ears; unto thee shall be its desires, but do thou 
rule over it. Genesis would have the man forever 
master of the beast.” This is not the quotation of 
God’s word at all. God says his desire shall be 
unto thee and thou shalt rule over him. The same 
as to say : Abel will be good to you ; but thou shalt 
slay him. Because the desire of the righteous is 
only good. I will give the Word of God in full so 
that all can see clearly. Prov. 11 :23 : The desire of 
the righteous is only good, but the expectation of 
the wicked is wrath. Prov. 19:22: The desire of a 
man is his kindness and a poor man is better than 
a liar. Now we will make a version out of these 
scriptures, and it will read as above stated. His 
kindness will be unto you, but your wrath will be 
unto him, or your expectation is to slay him. This 
comment contradicts more or less all the way 
through. Now we come to the worst of the bad. 
The second of February. The Flood. They refer 
to the telling of this story of the flood as being a 
man, and he did not like the bad world which he is 
describing. I wish my readers would read the Bi- 

12 


178 


Strong Delusions 


ble for themselves, and see who was the author of 
this Genesis. God revealed all these words to 
Moses his servant, and he wrote all these words. 
Now they say by heading the third paragraph of 
this comment, “The Pessimism of God.” “The Flood 
tradition gives us a glimpse of God in a most un- 
usual aspect. We have been accustomed to think 
of God as the infinite optimist. Here we see a pic- 
ture of a divine pessimist. It looks as if for once 
the doubters and the skeptic and the apostles of de- 
spair had come into their own. Here they find 
God on their side. He has reached a place of com- 
plete discouragement about human life. The peo- 
ple in the world are so bad that he had decided to 
try no more experiments with them. The only 
thing to do with humanity is to destroy it. Here is 
pessimism on the throne of the universe. We must 
be very careful, however, before we make up our 
minds that the God of the flood story is a proto- 
type of the modern pessimist, the resemblance may 
turn out to be very superficial. Let us look a lit- 
tle more closely. A typical modern apostle of de- 
spair had painted a graphic picture of his concep- 
tion of the universe. A train is dashing rapidly 
over the rails, ahead there is a great chasm, bridged 
by a great structure across which the trains are 
accustomed to move; that bridge has been washed 
away; no one on the train knows it; the train 
dashes on and the engineer lies dead in the engine. 
When we analyze this picture we see helpless men 
in the hopeless universe. The dead engineer is 
God ; the track leading to the chasm with the bridge 
washed away is the system of things, a hopeless 
mass of confusion. Men are the victims of a bad 
universe with a dead God. In the Genesis picture 


Strong Delusions 


179 


all is different; God is tremendously alive. The 
system of things is good. Men are not victims but 
sinners. You have a good God and a good system 
and bad men. The pessimism is the moral despair 
of God over a completely recalcitrant people. As 
long as there is a good God and a universe funda- 
mentally sound we are not without hope. The 
only deadly pessimism is that which despairs of 
the character of God and the moral soundness of 
the system of things.” The above paragraph is 
written word for word as found published in the 
Western North Carolina Christian Advocate y and 
the sense of the whole paragraph is a pessimistic 
God coinciding with the doubters and the skeptics 
and the apostles of despair. These find God on 
their side, completely discouraged with eternal 
separation. A God of pessimism on the throne of 
the universe. A warning to us as to how we 
charge or accuse our Maker with being a pessimist 
of despair, or a picture of such a thing. Here he 
takes up a parable of the apostle of despair, show- 
ing that men, bad men, are victims of a bad uni- 
verse with a dead God. And then winds up by say- 
ing that the only deadly pessimism is that which de- 
spairs of the character of God, and the moral 
soundness of man. It seems to me that men are 
getting rather too rotten. This gets way beyond 
anything that is decent. I don’t know how to an- 
swer any such thing. God says to answer a fool 
according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own 
conceit. Now to answer this is to ponder God’s 
word, and find one. The nearest that can be found 
is, therefore if the light that is in thee be darkness 
how great is that darkness ! Jesus Christ when he 
was preaching marveled at such darkness, and who 


180 


Strong Delusions 


could not? This is only one paragraph of this 
Sunday School lesson comment, the whole thing is 
so disgusting and so rotten that I just stop with the 
utmost horror at such damnable heresies. I have 
never seen anything to compete, or in any way 
equal this publication ; it is actually worse than to 
deny that there is any God of the universe. Satan 
has never, at any time, been so blasphemous as to 
accuse the great God of all creation of anything in 
any way as mean as this publication sent out 
as Christian literature for the people of these con- 
ferences to read. If he has there is no revelation 
or proof of such fact. For on different occasions 
Satan acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Son 
of God when he was casting devils out of people. 
And if there is any place in the Bible that reveals 
that Satan denies the sovereignty of the living God 
I do not remember reading it. [The sum and sub- 
stance of the whole of these three Sunday School 
comments is that God made man with a growing 
desire in him, or a little serpent in him, and it just 
grew and grew until it become so large that there 
was not room in the man, and the outcrop began to 
tell so it began to respond to the serpent in the gar- 
den, and God drove them out of the garden to give 
them room to multiply and develop, and to see 
what he could find out about them. So he found 
that murder was one of his first experiences, and 
on this account he had to take measures to check or 
prevent this crime, but instead of driving the mur- 
derer away as a fugitive, putting a stop to crime, 
that it magnified so alarmingly that it was just like 
a helpless or dead God, and a completely recalci- 
trant people, dashing along at fearful rate of speed 
into a great chasm, all a hopeless mass of confu- 


Strong Delusions 


181 


sion. Then he was very courageous over one good 
man that he had found to begin making a new 
world with; he being a pessimist about the moral 
possibilities of the mass of men. He is very en- 
thusiastic over the optimism of this one strong man, 
and only tears down and destroys to rebuild. He 
sends the flood to wash and clean the world to 
make a better and purer people out of his reserve 
of the old world, for the beginning of his new 
world.] The idea of making a better world! He 
made and created all things that were made and 
created in the beginning; then he looked at them 
and he saw that it was good and very good ; and to 
say that he was going to make a better and purer 
civilization out of the impure. The true sense of 
his destroying the world is that God in his infinite 
mercy after man had sinned, he offered and prom- 
ised him salvation on the sole conditions of obedi- 
ence, and man failing to obey and rebelling more 
and more, thus God destroyed man for his wicked- 
ness, and in showing his righteousness condemned 
the world in saving Noah and his house, through 
one man’s obedience. Thus Noah became the heir 
of righteousness, which is faith. God had prom- 
ised this salvation and had sworn by himself be- 
cause he could not swear by greater, saying: Am 
I a man or like a man that I will not bring my 
word to pass? I will bring my word to pass. And 
verily he has. These comments are like a cyclone 
bursting forth in the midst of New York and 
sweeping over all that country, then twisting 
around and driving southward, gaining more 
strength, of a great master force of destruction, 
and sweeps all over this vast territory, without the 
least effort of resistance and lays the truth flat to 


182 


Strong Delusions 


the ground, and tramples it in the dust of the 
earth. We quote God’s word again. If the light 
that is in you is darkness how great is that dark- 
ness. These comments look right dark to me when 
compared with the light. Jesus says, I am the 
light, the truth and the life. And Jesus never 
taught anything like these comments. And there is 
no divine sentiment taught in the Bible like such 
stuff. So these look like they are quenching the 
light. We see light in the light of the Lord, and 
it is sown for the righteous, and we will find this 
light shining forth from the Word of God. Then 
why not be guided by it, and walk in the light of 
God? In thy light shall we see light. If God’s re- 
vealed light is not light and truth and life, I want 
someone to tell me. Woe unto them that are wise 
in their own eyes, and are prudent in their own 
sight. Woe unto them that call evil good and good 
evil ; that put darkness for light and light for dark- 
ness ; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 
But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of 
righteousness arise with healing in its wings, and 
ye shall go forth as calves in the stall ; and ye shall 
tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes un- 
der the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do 
this, saith the Lord of Hosts. Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
Father. 


Strong Delusions 


183 


CHAPTER XVI. 

God Instructors. 

SENTIMENT OF THE LEADERS OF THE CHURCHES. 

The common sentiment of the leaders of the 
churches is that the Word of God should read dif- 
ferently from what it does, or, in other words, this 
fast set of enlightened people are instructing the 
Almighty. For instance, Mr. Libie, a preacher of 
the Congregationalists said in a sermon, that 
Elijah, the prophet, ought not to have fled from 
Jezebel, but ought to have stayed up there and 
God could have taken care of him just as well up 
there as he could under the juniper tree, asking to 
die. Now, Mr. Libie’s sentiment of the Holy Scrip- 
tures is that they should not read as they do. That 
when Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying: 
So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make 
not thy life as the life of one of them by tomor- 
row about this time. (Elijah certainly knew Jezebel 
and what she meant to do.) And when he saw 
that, he arose, and went for his life. Now his in- 
struction is that it should have read thus : Elijah 
should have remained up there where he consumed 
the altar of God and slew the prophets of Baal, 
and God could have taken care of him just as well 
as under the juniper tree, and he would have been 
doing God’s service. And further, Mr. J. C. 
Rowe’s instruction is, that the Holy Bible, God’s 
word, should not read thus: That God made the 
heavens and earth and finished all the host of them 
in six days and rested the seventh day. But it 
should have read that if we could comprehend 
millions and millions, and with emphasis, millions 


184 


Strong Delusions 


of years, we could tell something about the begin- 
ning of time, and the two first verses of the Bible 
should have been left off. And in the beginning 
God said let there be light and there was light. 
Mr. Rowe continues and says, that Jesus was just 
like any other boy except he was without sin; and 
he had to be taught in books and went to school 
just like any other boy; and be corrected and 
taught and was not considered to be the Son of 
God until he was baptized, and then he went into 
the wilderness, and I don’t believe he could see the 
Devil any more than I can; but said within him- 
self that if I be the Son of God I can command 
these stones and they would be made bread, but 
that would separate me from my Father and I 
cannot do that. And then he went up on the pin- 
nacle of the temple and took a birdseye view of 
the town, and said within himself if I be the Son 
of God I could jump down from here, and his an- 
gels would bear me up in their hands, but that 
would separate me from my Father so I will not 
do that either. And then he went up on a high 
mountain and viewed and inspected the world, and 
said such a wonderful kingdom that I can make 
of this, but it will separate me from the Father 
and I will not do that. The Home Herald dictates 
that the Bible should read that our Father Abra- 
ham and Sarah lied to the king of Egypt to de- 
ceive him and his people, and that Jacob stole his 
brother’s birthright. Rev. Mr. Stowe and Mr. Rat- 
ledge corrects on the same line of thought. Mr. 
Stowe said that Abraham and wife conspired to- 
gether to tell a lie to deceive the Egyptians, was 
his version. Mr. Ratledge says that there is a 
whole lot of truth in the saying of the infidel, that 
the man and the beast differ in only one way, and 


Strong Delusions 


185 


that difference is that the beast will forgive one 
another and man will not. Then the Bible should 
have read this way : The beast of the field is su- 
perior to the human family and he shall have 
dominion. Bishop Morrison said in his style of 
correction that it ought to read that a man could 
indulge in one of the leading sins of the world and 
be saved. Mr. Bowles said that it ought to read 
thus: That I cannot conceive that our parents 
were created and made in eternity, nor can any 
one else tell. V. A. Sharpe said that his idea was 
that it ought to read that God does not foreknow 
what man thinks or will do. Mr. E. K. McLarty 
said that it should read that the law is as dead as 
death. Mr. L. L. Chaffer that the word should 
have read, that God recognized the Devil’s rights 
in obtaining the world rule, and his entire owner- 
ship of the same. Mr. George Hermon, that the 
Devil has the power of inspiration, the same as to 
say that he can give life. The New York Christian 
Advocate thinks that it ought to read, that Jesus 
repented for all the races of the human family, and 
that the cravings of the stomach and physical de- 
sire, and the emotions of the body and the power 
of the mind to bring all worldly objects before 
him; in fact, all the faculties of his whole being 
was the sole power in tempting him in the three 
leading temptations of Jesus Christ, and leave the 
Devil out of all these temptations, or in other 
words, say there is no Devil. And then the North 
Carolina Christian Advocate joins in with him and 
says, yes, that is so, you are right. Then the lead- 
ing sentiment of the churches say that we have the 
rule, we are going to convert the world in such and 
such a time, and have divided up or equalized the 
people by number for each creed. Then comes Mr. 


186 


Strong Delusions 


Booth and says that the story of Jacob’s life is en- 
tirely wrong, and it ought to read thus, that his 
life was so inconsistent that it does not commend 
iself to us, neither to God. (See how he dictates; 
he says to God. He seems to know more about it 
than God himself.) And that Jacob tried to buy 
something for nothing, when be obtained the 
coveted prize. And that God should be a dramat- 
ical actor and show the character of his subjects 
in such performance that words of all languages 
can not adequately convey the idea of their beha- 
vior in such a case as this, and that it was not all 
joy after all. And don’t you say that sin is death, 
and Jacob certainly sinned, and he greatly pros- 
pered, and there is twice as much danger in sin- 
ning and going up as there is in sinning and going 
down. And he had to flee to the wilderness like a 
fugitive, and never returned to see the face of his 
father or mother, who led him into so much of his 
wickedness, again. And it is not what a man 
carries in his hands that makes him happy, but 
what he carries in his heart. And when he met 
Laban he met his match. Jew met Jew and dia- 
mond cut diamond. Laban with his farms and 
cattle and horses and fine daughters, and Jacob 
coveting them. And he had to work fourteen long 
years for his two wives, his other coveted prize. 
And he had to flee from Laban and scarcely started 
back before he could see nothing before him but 
his brother Esau and his four hundred armed men. 
And Jacob wrestled with God, and he asked him 
his name, and he said his name was Jacob, and he 
bore the name that represented the character of 
the man that was guilty. For he was guilty of all 
the atrocious crimes that I have set forth in this 
sermon, and many times more; in so much that I 


Strong Delusions 


187 


cannot find words to convey the idea of them, and 
I have tried to give you a faint idea of them by 
my actions. And the wretched man prayed that 
God would not visit his wickedness upon his fam- 
ily, especially upon Rachel and little Joseph. But 
the gleaming light of the sun poured its rays on 
him the next morning, and he was at last to meet 
Esau; and the whole of the gospel is in this one 
story. And Jacob surrendered and called the name 
of the place Peniel. And here Mr. Libie joins in 
saying, that Jacob was a grafter and told false- 
hoods, and ought to have just waited and God 
would have worked it all out to his own notion. 
Then Mr. Love, a prominent layman said Jacob was 
another Jay Gould and cheated his father and 
everybody; long-headed and made things go his 
way; and that Jacob was last in meeting his brother 
Esau, and his fear showed that he was wrong. Mr. 
Detwiler says it ought to convey to us that all the 
forces of the kingdoms of this world were worked 
out to their full limit; and Jesus looked over them 
all, and saw that nothing could be added, and said 
no I am not going there, and that there is nothing 
revealed in God’s word that shows that there will 
be a time of peace and joy here on earth ; no more 
death, no poor, no pain, where everything will be 
peace, and how anyone can forever be punished in 
hell without consuming away; and that my Jesus 
can in some future world bring the wicked to the 
right and the light; but I do not know, I cannot 
tell, but I do know that this spiritual kingdom 
that I preach will dominate, and there will be a 
hell forever in this universe. And would stop here ; 
further than that I can not reach a certain good 
class of people just outside the church, but God is 


188 


Strong Delusions 


going to raise up preachers who will or can reach 
them and bring them in. 

Mr. Waggoner says that it should read that the 
new Jerusalem will descend from heaven, and the 
mountain will be clave, and it will stand on the 
site of the old Jerusalem, and will abide there for- 
ever and ever, and the judgment takes place before 
the second coming of Jesus, and while this judg- 
ment is going on there will be a chance for people 
to make their calling and election sure. There can 
be no question about the eternal duration of the 
kingdom of Christ here on this earth. And that 
the earth will be melted with fervent heat and will 
be literally a lake of fire. Then Mr. James Cole 
comes along and gives his instructions that it 
ought to read that people are here only in a dying 
state, not living, but dying all the time until they 
breathe out, and Jesus did not die on the cross in 
such intolerable agonies but just breathed out. 
And there is no such thing as an eternal hell of fire 
and brimstone, but there is a free grace that all 
can come and accept at some future time, and en- 
joy salvation, and to preserve anything it takes 
ice. Rev. Mr. Teague says that it should read that 
Rebekah ought to have prayed for God to have in- 
structed her, and then gone to Isaac and told him 
what God said about blessing Jacob, and not have 
deceived the old man by using the goat skins. 
These are only a few of the leading people who are 
saying how this Holy Word of God should be read, 
or assume to instruct and teach the Almighty. This 
is certainly a sad affair, that the leaders and 
teachers of the Word of God should drift into. 
And the multitudes and millions of people on this 
account are surging on and on as blind leaders of 
the blind. What a tangled mess it is; every man 
going a contrary way 


Strong Delusions 


189 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Leading Thoughts of the Bible. 

For any one to get the leading thoughts of the 
revelation of God, we must read the whole Bible 
through and then through again and again, until 
we become familiar with the divine sentiment; or 
in other words, see clearly what is God’s whole 
plan or purpose in what he has said or caused to be 
written by holy and just men, such as Moses, 
Joshua, King David, King Solomon, the prophet 
Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah and many others. The 
Lord gave the word, and great was the company of 
those that published it. Then we find that each 
man has written the divine sentiment, or continued 
to express the same law, with the same universal 
sentiment and condition; giving each individual 
their choice to serve him or refuse his service just 
to his or her free will. The secret of the glory of all 
service. Then when we come to consider the three 
leading thoughts of the whole teachings of the Bi- 
ble, we find that the answer is strength, mercy and 
obedience. Strength and mercy belong to God, and 
obedience belongs to us. King David said : “It is 
God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh 
my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hind’s 
feet and setteth me upon high places. He teacheth 
my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken 
by mine arm.” God manifests his strength in many 
different ways. He speaks out and it is done. He 
walks upon the wings of the wind. Thy way is in 
the sea and thy path in the great waters, and thy 
footsteps are not known. And God leads his peo- 
ple like a flock, and suffers no one to hurt them; 


190 


Strong Delusions 


his angels guard them in all their goings. Who 
administers unto all their necessities? O, the 
strength of the voice of the Lord. The voice of the 
thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings light- 
ened the world ; the earth trembled and shook. See 
the strength and terribleness of the living God. He 
rains great hailstones to destroy man and beast; 
it thundered and the fire ran along upon the 
ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of 
Egypt. So it was very grievous, hail mingled 
with fire ; such hail or storm had never been known, 
or anything like it seen in all the land since it be- 
came a nation; smiting all that was in the field, 
both man and beast; and destroying all vegetation 
for the support of man and beast, and breaking the 
trees of the field. Thus it destroyed all that were 
enemies, but God protected his people in this 
plague and suffered them not to be hurt, or sustain 
the least damage, but rather turned the same to 
their gain. God shows his marvelous loving kind- 
ness and saves his people by the strength of his 
right hand ; all such as put their trust in him. The 
heavens are thine, the earth also is thine. As for 
the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast 
founded them. The north and the south, thou hast 
created them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in 
thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm ; strong is thy 
hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and 
judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy 
and truth shall go before thy face. Ah, if we could 
conceive or understand just a little of his strength. 
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yester- 
day when it is past, and as a watch in the night. 
Thou can brush them away as with a flood; they 
are as one asleep. Who knoweth the power of thine 


Strong Delusions 


191 


anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 
Therefore will I say of the Lord, he is my refuge 
and my fortress. My God, in him will I trust. I 
will anchor in the strength of the Lord. I will 
know that no evil can come nigh unto me. From 
all such as rise up to do evil in any way. We can 
see to some extent and understand his power and 
strength now, and his future destruction by his 
past, and his patient warning. Before in the build- 
ing of the ark, in the days of the flood, how God 
warned the people for one hundred years, and 
turned in the flood upon the world of man- 
kind, and destroyed all man and beast, but 
Noah and his sons, which was eight souls. O, 
the wrathful anger of the Lord God that he has 
shown at various times and places upon all those 
that turn away from him to become his enemy. He 
says he will send a mighty tempest upon the 
wicked, and rain great snares and fire and brim- 
stone down upon them, and this shall be the por- 
tion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth 
the righteous ; his countenance doth behold the up- 
right ; and in his strength he takes care of all such 
as put their trust in him, such as have humble and 
contrite hearts in like manner that he took 
care of Noah, by long suffering of God, waiting 
in the days of the preparing of the ark, wherein 
few were saved, only eight souls. This waiting 
covering as much as one hundred years. This 
also shows God’s goodness in connection with his 
strength and power. God shows his strength 
through his angels in battle and in smiting on 
other occasions. And it came to pass that night 
that the angel of the Lord went out, and 
smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and 


192 


Strong Delusions 


four-score and five thousand ; and when they arose 
early in the morning, behold, they were all dead 
corpses. What power invested in only one angel, 
and suppose a legion were called forth, what could 
withstand them? No mind can tell or conceive. 
Then again when the two angels went down to 
Sodom and when the Sodomites pressed on the 
man Lot very sore at the door of his house, to do 
him hurt; the angels reached out and pulled Lot 
into his house and shut the door and smote the 
multitude with blindness, so that they worried and 
could not find the door. And the angels said to 
Lot: Hast thou here any besides? Son-in-law and 
thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou 
hast in the city, bring them out of this place; be- 
cause the cry of them is waxing great before the 
face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to de- 
stroy it. This instance shows conclusively also 
that God gave these angels power to destroy Sodom 
and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire, from the 
Lord out of heaven. So they overthrew those cities 
and all of the plain, and all of the inhabitants of 
the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 
There is no limit to his strength. Neither can the 
limit of his strength have any bounds ; that he may 
convey upon his subjects that obey and serve him 
at all times. Who maketh his angels spirits, and 
his ministers a flaming fire. The Lord God does 
many of his mighty works through his angels. In 
the day of Gideon the angel was sent unto him, and 
talked with him, and he asked of the angel a sign, 
and Gideon offered a present unto the angel, and 
set it before him. Then the angel of the Lord put 
forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and 
touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and 


Strong Delusions 


193 


there arose up fire out of the rock and consumed 
the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel 
of the Lord departed out of his sight. Just the 
sight of an angel made men afraid so they ex- 
claimed, Alas, O Lord God ; how dreadful to see the 
face of an angel ! By the strength of his right arm 
he gives grace to the needy and saves the dying, and 
those that are ready to perish. By his strength he 
sends forth the storm, the mighty wind. By his 
strength and wisdom he rebukes the sea and she 
obeys. By his strength he sets bounds for the great 
waters and bids them stop here, that they come no 
further. By his power he sends the earthquake 
and shakes the whole earth, and overflows the lands 
with his waters that are held in reserve. By his 
strength he destroys the great inventions of the na- 
tions and brings them to naught. By his strength 
he sends forth the hurricane and the cyclone and 
tears the strong oak of the forest, and dashes the 
mighty forest to destruction right quick. It is in 
his great power to make alive and to kill, to de- 
stroy and to make anew. Seeing that he can do all 
these things let us bow down before him, and wor- 
ship before his holy will. 

The third month after the children of Israel 
came out of the land of Egypt, the same came unto 
the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched their tents, 
and encamped before the mount. And God spake 
unto his servant Moses out of the mount and said : 
Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and to 
the children of Israel. Ye have seen what I did unto 
the Egyptians in sending my judgments upon them. 
By his strong arm, in his might, even the plagues 
of water turned to blood so that it stank so that the 
people of Pharaoh could not drink and there was 
13 


194 


Strong Delusions 


blood throughout all the land of Egypt. The 
plague of frogs that literally covered up the whole 
face of the earth, so that they came into the houses 
of the people of Egypt, and into their bed cham- 
bers and upon their beds, and into their ovens and 
into their cooking. Upon all, from the greatest to 
the servants of Egypt. The plague of lice; all the 
dust upon the face of the earth became lice, on man 
and beast. Just think for a moment the multitudes 
and the unimaginable quantities of these lice cov- 
ering man and beast. Such quantities as could be 
raked off in handfuls. The plague of the flies. 
He sent swarms of flies. Think of such swarms, 
and so thick they filled the air so one could 
not breathe without imbibing flies. The houses of 
the Egyptians being filled with the swarms of flies 
and all the ground whereon they were; making a 
difference between the Egyptians and his people, 
the children of Israel. The plague of murrain now 
comes upon the cattle which are in the field; upon 
the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon 
the oxen and upon the sheep. There shall be a very 
grievous murrain. And all the cattle of Egypt 
died of murrain. The plague of the sore boils, a 
perum cutus, shaped tumor like, with a central 
core of rotten matter or pus, that causes much 
pain; these also covered with blains breaking out, 
sore blisters. This plague was upon all the Egyp- 
tians, both man and beast. Think of such sore "af- 
flictions upon all; not one person left to help an- 
other. Think of the groans and cries of people in 
such case; something like smallpox or worse. The 
plague was so sore that no one could stand before 
the Lord. And God said by his servant Moses to 
Pharaoh, that I will stretch out my hand that I 


Strong Delusions 


195 


may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and 
thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And for this 
cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my 
power ; and that my name may be declared 
throughout all the earth. Then God sends upon 
Pharaoh and all the people of Egypt a very griev- 
ous rain, a very grievous hail, such as has never 
been before upon this land until now, destroying 
every man and beast that remained out in the field. 
So that all who regarded not the word of the Lord 
left their servants and their beasts in the field so 
they perished. So the Lord sent thunder and hail, 
and the fire ran along upon the ground, and the 
Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there 
was hail and fire mingled with the hail. Very griev- 
ous, so much so that Pharaoh began to call for 
mercy, while it yet thundered and rained; and it 
smote all herbs and broke the trees. The plague of 
the locusts now comes, and they break through all 
the land of Egypt, and eat up every green thing that 
remained from the destruction of the hail. For 
they covered the face of the earth, so they could 
not see the earth. They ate the trees of the field 
also ; so they were very grievous. Before then there 
were no such locusts as they; neither after them 
shall there be such. The plague of darkness now 
covers the land, and they saw not one another; 
neither rose any from his place for three days. Then 
Pharaoh yielded for the people of Israel to go, but 
leave cattle ; herds of flocks be stayed. Then comes 
the establishment of the great institution of the 
passover. By the death of all the first born of all 
the Egyptians, both of man and beast; and in pass- 
ing over the houses of the children of Israel. And 
God sent his angel about midnight, and smote the 


196 


Strong Delusions 


first born from the king that sat upon the throne, 
even to the first born of the maid servant that is be- 
hind the mill; and all the first born of the beasts. 
Then a great cry went up from the land of Egypt, 
such as there was none like, nor shall be like it any 
more. In God’s visiting Egypt with his wrathful 
anger, and in his indigination. Upon King Pha- 
raoh of Egypt, in all of his great power, and all of 
the strength of the mighty nation of Egypt, he 
shows exclusively his great power and authority 
over all creation, to execute the same, to the extent 
that he sees fit, owing to the wickedness of man- 
kind. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice in- 
deed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a pe- 
culiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the 
earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom 
of priests, and an holy nation. Then the people 
were sanctified by the command of Moses according 
to God’s word, and were ready against the third 
day. And it came to pass on the third day that the 
Lord God came down in his power, and it thundered 
and lightened, and a thick cloud was upon the 
mount, and the voice of a trump, exceeding loud, 
so that all the people in the camp trembled. And 
as Moses brought forth the people out of the camp 
to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the 
mount. And Moses had set bounds that his people 
could come to the foot of the mount, but could not 
come any further, nor as much as touch the moun- 
tain ; if they did they would be thrust through with 
a dart. And Mount Sinai was altogether in (a 
smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. 
For you see that God is a consuming fire ; and the 
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, 
and the whole mount quaked greatly. Ah, can we 


Strong Delusions 


197 


conceive the strength or power of God? Just his 
approach to the mount as he descends from his 
heavenly home makes it tremble and shudder, and 
have violent convulsions in connection with the 
trembling. If we will just take the fire and smoke 
into consideration. I answer, no, we cannot con- 
ceive in the least of the great God’s strength and 
power. Furthermore, he said unto Moses, go down 
and charge the people lest they break through and 
come up to gaze upon the Lord, and many of them 
perish. See, the Lord forewarns his people of his 
strength, lest he tear them and destroy them. Then 
he further shows his strength and power in uphold- 
ing all of his creation. He gives unto man all the 
strength of mind and body that he possesses, and 
upholds him by his free spirit. For the going of man 
is of the Lord ; how then can a man know his own 
ways? By the strength of his almighty power the 
world is kept in its place ; by the same mighty divine 
law that all creation is kept in place of existence. It 
is by his strength that he bindeth up the waters in 
his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under 
them. The pillars of heaven tremble and are aston- 
ished at his reproof. Hell is naked before him, and 
destruction hath no covering. He holdeth the wind 
in his fist, and beholds everything with his eyes; 
and with his eyelids he tries men’s hearts. He 
opens his hand and the beast of the field and the 
fowls of heaven, and every living thing is satisfied 
with food; he turns his face and they are all 
troubled. By his power and strength, he spared 
not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to 
hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, 
to be reserved unto judgment; and through his 
strength and power he keeps all creation in exist- 


198 


Strong Delusions 


ence and prolongs time. And with great power 
and glory he will come back to this earth, and with 
a mighty shout. Then the heavens will pass away 
with a mighty scrawl, when it is rolled together, 
and every mountain and island moved out of their 
places. And the kings of the earth, and the great 
men and the rich men, and the chief captains and 
the mighty men, and every free man hid themselves 
in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and 
said unto the mountains and rocks : Fall on us and 
hide us from the face of him that sitteth 
on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 
For the great day of his wrath is come; 
and who shall be able to stand? See that no king 
of the earth, nor any great man, or rich man, or 
mighty man ; nor any kind of man, nor any number 
of men can withstand the strength of the Almighty 
God, and of the Lamb, in his wrathful anger. For 
the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall 
be able to stand? Mercy belongs to God in its full- 
est extent. He extends mercy to such wonderful 
excess that some among the greatest and best men 
that have ever lived in any age or generation have 
exclaimed, I am not worthy of the least of all the 
mercies and of all the truths which thou hast 
showed unto thy servant. Thus the Patriarch, in 
most worthy terms, refers to the least thing that 
God our maker and creator could do, for one of the 
greatest of our ancestors thought it too god for him. 
In his mercy he yields unto his servants in various 
ways, and on many occasions. And the Lord said 
unto Moses: I will do this also that thou hast 
spoken ; for thou hast found grace in my sight, and 
I know thee by name. And he said: I beseech 
thee, show me thy glory. And the Lord said unto 


Strong Delusions 


199 


him : I will make all my goodness pass before thee, 
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before 
thee; and I will be gracious, and will show mercy 
on wLom I will show mercy. And he said: thon 
cans’t not see my face, for there shall no man see 
me and live. And the Lord said : Behold, there is 
a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. 
And it shall come to pass that while my glory 
passeth by that I will put thee in a cleft of a rock, 
and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. 
And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see 
my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. See 
the tender mercies of the great and terrible God 
shown in talking with the man Moses; giving him 
full instructions how he would have him do, if he 
saw his glory. And just think, too, of a fallen 
man under the curse seeing the glorious form, or 
any part of the form of the living God. And tell- 
ing him he could not see his face and live. Show- 
ing him a place by the Lord and standing him 
upon a rock, and putting him in a cleft of*a rock, 
and covered him with his hand while he passed by ; 
then removed his hand so that Moses could see his 
back parts. The marvelous effect that the least 
of the glory of God had on the son of man in this 
sinful flesh, that it made his face shine so that all 
the people were afraid of him afterwards, so he 
had to wear a veil over his face when he talked with 
them, but would take it off when he went into the 
tabernacle to commune with God. How merciful 
this great revelation of God unto man, yet it is 
among one of his least mercies. Keeping mercy 
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgres- 
sion and sin, and that will by no means clear the 
guilty; visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon 


200 


Strong Delusions 


the children, and upon the children’s children, nnto 
the third and fourth generation of them that hate 
me. O, how we ought to make haste and worship 
before God, for he is a consuming fire. And I 
prayed unto the Lord my God, and made supplica- 
tion, and said: O Lord, the great and dreadful 
God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that 
love him, and to them that keep his commandments, 
while confusion of faces, and iniquity of the peo- 
ple of the Methodist and the Friends, and the Bap- 
tists, and the Presbyterians, and to all the churches 
that claim the name of Christian, in all the land, as 
at this day. To the Lord our God belong mercies 
and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against 
him. Still his arm is stretched out. For as the heav- 
ens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy 
toward them that fear him. How much it pays one 
to serve and fear him, no one can tell. It can not 
be estimated with money or by any conceivable ma- 
terial thing. It cannot be measured by figures or 
by numbers, but involves everything to him that 
fears the Lord. There is nothing that can reveal 
the glory or the worth but eternity, and that will 
be in heaven. While the poor soul who neglects 
his salvation through the mercy of the Lord Jesus 
Christ will find how much they have lost. But 
alas, and alas, too late. How much sorrow, grief, 
pain and death, no one can tell, only those that are 
there, and they cannot tell, because it is worse and 
worse. Just all that they can bear, and cannot en- 
dure, but have to stand it. O give thanks unto the 
Lord for his mercy endureth forever. Hernan, 
Jeduthun, and the rest that were chosen, who were 
expressed by name, to give thanks to the Lord be- 
cause his mercy endureth forever. Now when the 


Strong Delusions 


201 


whole people, with instruments of music, all in 
union or of one mind, to make one sound to be 
heard in praising and thanking, and when they 
lifted up their voices with the instruments of music, 
trumpets and cymbals, and praised the Lord, say- 
ing : For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. 
Then the house was filled with a cloud; even the 
house of the Lord. When these people of God wor- 
shipped God in the union of word and spirit, the 
Lord heard from heaven and answered in mercy, 
and filled the house of the Lord with his presence, 
so that the priest could not enter, or stand to min- 
ister unto the Lord, for the people, by reason of the 
cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of 
God. There is no other way of having God’s mer- 
cies extended unto us, unless we lift our hearts 
unto him in spirit and in truth in the union of his 
word. King David, in almost all his worship 
speaks of the goodness of God, and in the 106, 10T, 
118, 136 Psalms began by saying: Praise ye the 
Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord, for his mercy 
endureth forever. Then in his great honor to the 
God of Jacob, David continues his thanks unto 
God by repeating, that his mercy endureth forever 
throughout the entire 136th chapter, which con- 
tains twenty-six verses. Seeming to realize the 
great bearing, the unquestionable consequence of 
the rich quality of the grace of such wonderful 
mercy that he repeated it for twenty-six times in 
the same prayer. No wonder the Lord promised 
David that out of his loins should spring salvation, 
which is the son of King David. Then upon all 
these times referred to; King David referred to 
the mercies of God extensively in his Psalms. So 
much so that we are much impressed in our wor- 


202 


Strong Delusions 


ship to call on our God for mercy, having such 
worthy examples to be governed by. Then we see 
that there is mercy with our great Creator; and we 
behold on every hand the long suffering of God, 
and his merciful kindness poured out on all. We 
are commanded to let not truth and mercy forsake 
us; and we should give thanks unto his name and 
glory, for his mercy and truth’s sake. And that 
we too should practice mercy and extend mercy to 
the poor, that we might have his merciful kindness 
conferred on us, and be gathered unto him in great 
mercy and love. He is so full of mercy, that he re- 
quires us, or desires mercy and not sacrifice. And 
again, it is in the Lord that the poor, the fatherless 
and the lame, the blind, the sick, and all distressed 
men find help and mercy. The Lord delighteth in 
mercy. We cannot please the Lord better than to 
show mercy to those who are suffering under op- 
pressed circumstances, or in any case where mitiga- 
tion is required for an individual enemy, or friend 
alike. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in 
our language precisely synonymous with mercy. 
That which comes apparently nearest to it is grace. 
It implies benevolence, tenderness, love, mildness, 
pity, and compassion and clemency and forgive- 
ness, and is exercised toward all offenders. Mercy 
is a distinguished attribute of the supreme being, 
extended to such wonderful fullness and complete- 
ness that he gave his only begotten Son that he 
died for our transgressions. Even in wrath God 
remembers mercy; so when he hears us cry he 
bends toward us in pity for Jesus sake. We can 
not comprehend the multitude or innumerable 
mercies of God’s love toward us. We cannot look 
in any direction but we behold the mercies of God’s 


Strong Delusions 


203 


gracious hand lavished out on us. For instance, 
light — that we can see one another and can walk 
without stumbling, and go about our work; and 
night — that we can lie down and take sleep and 
rest. Sunshine — to warm the earth and to make 
food grow for man and beast. Rain to make the 
earth moist and to give water for all living, and 
strength and breath to keep alive. The moon and 
stars to give light by night; the many fold cattle 
and beast, and fowls innumerable; also the waters 
are full of fish, great and small. O Lord, how man- 
ifold are thy mercies, and thy handiwork. It is 
God that showeth mercy; because he is rich in 
mercy, full of compassion. So let us strive to ob- 
tain mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be- 
fore it is eternally too late. 

Obedience is the leading thought of our duty to 
God, that rings so clear that it is very unmistak- 
able. All the blessings of God, our heavenly Father 
are based and founded upon obedience. When 
Moses read in the book of the covenant the ordi- 
nance of the people, and they said: All the Lord 
hath said will we do, and be obedient. Then Moses 
sealed the covenant by the sprinkling of the blood 
on the people, and said, behold the blood of the cov- 
enant, which the Lord hath made with you this day 
concerning all these words. A wise reproval upon 
an obedient ear is like an ornament of fine gold, or 
as earrings of gold. When this obedient ear hears 
words fitly spoken it is also like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver. What fine illustrations of obe- 
dience. We owe every day, hour and moment of 
our time to God in obedience. If ye be willing and 
obedient ye shall eat of the good of the land ; but if 
ye rebel and refuse ye shall be devoured with the 


204 


Strong Delusions 


sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 
God requires us to be obedient to the law in all 
things, for this is the fulfilling of the law. God re- 
quires the servants of men to be obedient to their 
masters in all service, and thus they are highly 
commended. The highest and most supreme evi- 
dence of the indispensable duty of obedience to God 
is shown by his Son, Jesus Christ. He being found 
in the fashion of a man he humbled himself and be- 
came obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. Our obedience then should become like that 
of little children: when bid obey cheerfully and 
willingly and gladly, when we are commanded. 
God required obedience of all the people under him 
as one voice through his chosen leader. Without 
obedience we cannot be saved; for he says, repent 
and believe, and thou shaft be saved. So you see 
that the first start to salvation depends entirely 
upon obeying the command of God. Behold, I set 
you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing, if 
you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, 
which I command you this day. And a curse if ye 
will not obey the commandments of the Lord your 
God, but turn aside out of the way which I com- 
mand you this day to go after other Gods, which 
ye have not known. Our blessings depend entirely 
upon obedience. If there is any man or human be- 
ing who does not appreciate a good favor or kind- 
ness, or a great gift conferred upon his person; 
then much more on his soul and spirit, especially 
in the saving of it. Now to obtain this great sal- 
vation that is obtained through the death and suf- 
fering of our Lord Jesus Christ, we only have to 
obey, and we have salvation as the result. And 
Samuel said: Hath the Lord as great delight in 


Strong Delusions 


205 


burnt offering's and sacrifices as in obeying the 
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stub- 
bornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou 
hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also re- 
jected thee from being king. This is certainly one 
of the plainest cases of God’s dealing with man for 
disobeying his word, that is set forth by him in all 
his word. King Saul first said that he had obeyed 
the word of the Lord. I have performed the com- 
mandment of the Lord. But when Samuel told him 
of the bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the 
lowing of the oxen which I hear. Then afterwards 
he repented and begged pardon. But God would 
not hear him, but rejected him because he had dis- 
obeyed God’s word ; and that obedience is more and 
better than all sacrifice. The King and the people 
seemed to lust after the finest sheep and the cows, 
desiring them rather than obey the Word of God; 
and received for themselves a curse rather than a 
blessing. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy 
name in all the earth. Then on the other hand we 
are made to exclaim how terrible is the anger of 
the Lord for disobedience. Then one of the great- 
est things that a man can do in the sight of God is 
to purify the soul in obeying the truth through the 
spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren; and 
see that ye love one another with a pure heart, fer- 
vently; showing that ye have obeyed God by being 
born again. Not of corruptible, but by the Word of 
God, which liveth and abideth forever. The people 
of our land and great nations are surely departing 
very fast from the true trusting faith of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, at this fast day of living. But God is 


206 


Strong Delusions 


still showing and extending his mercies toward us 
in his long suffering in sparing our very unprofit- 
able lives, by not bringing upon us his judgments, 
through his wrathful anger that he has against the 
wicked and disobedient. For as by one man’s diso 7 
bedience many were made sinners, so by the obedi- 
ence of one many shall be made righteous. Then 
our obedience is strictly required through the obe- 
dience of one, even God’s Son. By the scriptures 
of the prophets it is made manifest, and shows 
plainly that the obedience of repentance and faith 
through the commandments of God, made known 
unto us by the holy prophets, that we are to be 
made perfect, and established according to the gos- 
pel, is the word of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. According to the ministry of the revela- 
tion, revealed unto us, which was kept secret from 
the foundation of the world, or since the world be- 
gan and made known to all nations. And in speak- 
ing about our perfect high priest, the Son of the 
most high and eternal God; who, in the days of his 
flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplica- 
tions, with strong crying and tears, unto him that 
was able to save him from death, and was heard in 
that he feared. And if Jesus, the only begotten 
Son, cried and wept, and shed tears and feared, 
when he was innocent and had done no sin, I tell 
you we had better look out for fear of the wrath of 
the Lord. Though he were a Son he learned obedi- 
ence by the things that he suffered, and by his per- 
fection he became the author of eternal salvation 
unto all them that obey him. So you see that God 
requires of us, back of all, obedience. First and 
last and all the time ; how dreadful and great a God 
we have to deal with, and what fear and obedience 


Strong Delusions 


207 


we should render. Now we beseech you, brethren, 
avoid all such as cause divisions contrary to the 
doctrine of the Holy Word of God, handed down by 
the holy prophets, and fulfilled by the Lord Jesus 
Christ, which we have learned. For all such serve 
not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and 
by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts 
of many who are simple. For our obedience should 
be made free, and spread abroad before all men. 
And how wise we ought to be in the fear of the Lord. 
Casting down imaginations and every high thing 
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 
and bringing into captivity every thought to the 
obedience of Christ; And be ready always to re- 
venge all disobedience when your obedience is ful- 
filled. Now we exact all according to the foreknowl- 
edge of God the Father through sanctification of 
the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be unto 
you, and may it remain and be multiplied. 


208 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Spirits. 

When we make a survey of the spirits and our 
association with them, we become almost bewil- 
dered, especially if we let our minds become disar- 
ranged by classifying the revealed spirits or fail 
to distinguish between the revealed spirits of God 
and their conformity. His work and the impor- 
tance of the spirits of God and their offices are dis- 
tinctly indicated by the number of times they are 
mentioned in the Holy Word of God. The Holy 
Spirit being referred to more than one hundred 
and fifty times alone. His work and the impor- 
tance of the same is indispensable. God himself 
works in man through his Holy Spirit. He says: 
Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man 
hear my voice and open the door I will come in to 
him and will sup with him and he with me. He 
speaks to us through our conscience in such gentle, 
loving tones that we ought to be watching so as to 
get every impression made, so we can be directed 
and led in the way of all truth, for there is no 
other way of knowing God’s word or his will, only 
to be led by his Holy Spirit. To show the impor- 
tance of giving heed to the spirit’s knocking o*r 
impressions; God says, my spirit shall not always 
strive with man, for that he also is flesh; but 
will cut him off and appoint him his portion with 
the hypocrite and the unbeliever. There shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is the second 
death. And when God said that his spirit should 
not always strive with man it was in consideration 
of the wickedness of the people before the flood, 


Strong Delusions 


209 


referring directly to their destruction, and also to 
the shortening of the lives of the human family. 
This statement showing conclusively that God’s 
spirit had been striving with man down to this 
time always; but he promised that his days should 
be one hundred and twenty years, signifying that 
if we disregard the reproofs and the wooings of 
his Holy Spirit that he will cease to come to us any 
more, which will seal or fix our eternal destiny by 
destruction; though we might live many years af- 
ter the departure of his spirit, as in the case of 
Pharaoh or King Saul. But if ye be led by the 
spirit ye are not under the law; to be condemned 
by the law but under grace. Not of the flesh for 
the flesh and spirit are contrary one to the other 
and work in opposition. The fruit of the spirit is 
love, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness; all 
these come from the Lord, and faith, meekness, 
temperance; against such there is no law. And we 
know by these graces, if we possess such, that we 
are justified by the spirit and there is no condem- 
nation. Yet we do not know or understand the 
long-suffering of our God, or his forbearance to- 
wards us, though we are disobedient. For God 
waited in the days of Noah while the ark was 
building, wherein few, that is eight souls, were 
Saved by water. We see by this act of God how pa- 
tient he is in spirit ; then there is no wonder about 
the transformation of our lives when we receive 
the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and of 
the Father. In comparing things literal with 
things spiritual we see the cleanliness in the above 
graces that I have quoted as the fruits of the spirit, 
such as love, joy, etc. Then on the other hand I 
see the horribleness of the filthy side of the flesh 


14 


210 


Strong Delusions 


of the human being. The works of the flesh, with- 
out the spirit, are manifest, and practiced, which 
are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, las- 
civiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, 
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, en- 
vyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such 
like; of which, no such things can enter the king- 
dom of heaven or the courts of (tod. For no such 
abominable things as above mentioned can be tol- 
erated by good people, much more by the angels 
or our great Creator and Maker. God in creating 
us so constituted us with will-power that we can 
accept his Holy Spirit or we can reject it. Thus 
Moses was commanded saying : Take ye, from 
among you an offering unto the Lord, whoever is 
of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of 
the Lord; gold and silver and brass and blue and 
purple and scarlet and fine linen, and goats’ hair 
and rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and 
shittim wood, and oil for the light, and spices for 
the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, and 
onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and 
for the breastplate. All these above named arti- 
cles were to be given to the Lord with willing 
heart. And then every wise hearted and willing 
man was commanded to build the ark of the Lord, 
and the tabernacle for the worship of the children 
of Israel, while they journeyed in the wilderness. 
And they came, every one whose heart stirred him 
up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, 
and they brought the Lord’s offering to the work 
of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all 
his service and for the holy garments. Then our 
sufficiency is of God, his spirit working in us both 
to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now the God 


Strong Delusions 


211 


of peace that brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 
working in you that which is well pleasing in his 
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for- 
ever and ever. Now if we would just let God’s 
Holy Spirit work in us to lead us to do his will, 
what wonders he could perform in this world, es- 
pecially in saving lost souls from everlasting pun- 
ishment. He made man to glorify his great name, 
but if we do not let him work in us to do his will, 
then there is no glory in us, but shame and confu- 
sion of faces, and everlasting death and punish- 
ment. In former days God revealed himself unto 
us through holy men, and in later days through 
his Son. And if we will read his word, and let the 
Holy Spirit lead us we can understand all that God 
says to us. Then we find in studying the Word of 
God that he has revealed unto us the three spirits 
in the Godhead; also seven other spirits of God; 
which are in all, ten. The three being one and 
yet they are distinct persons, the Father, the Son, 
the Holy Ghost. The office of the Father being 
the husbandman ; he taketh away the barren 
branches that yield no fruit and destroys them; 
and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it 
that it may bring forth more fruit. It is as neces- 
sary for us to be chastised by the father of us all; 
as it is for the husbandman of the literal grape 
vineyard to work and prune the vines of his garden, 
for without such attention we would soon have no 
fruit. And Jesus says: I am the vine, ye are the 
branches, and if we abide in Jesus then we can 
yield forth fruit of righteousness by good works of 


212 


Strong Delusions 


love and charity; the same kind that he produced 
in all of his teachings unto us. We obtain our 
soul life all from him by being grafted into the 
vine by the new birth, then we are nourished and 
fed by the living fountain, or source of all life, 
which is his work, and to intercede for us. The 
Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth, for he 
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall 
hear that shall he speak, and he will show you 
things to come. He shall gorify me for he shall 
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Then 
it becomes very evident that the Holy Spirit applies 
the blood of the Lamb in the washing of the regen- 
eration and the cleansing of our sins away, and 
leads and teaches us in the truth. Now we come to 
the seven spirits of God which is referred to so 
often, and we seemingly get such a faint idea of 
them, though they ring very clear through all the 
teachings of the Bible; and there is no better rea- 
son, nor any more divine one than to say that the 
Bible is measured by threes, sevens and tens, than 
because there are three spirits in the Godhead, and 
that there are seven spirits of God, the three spirits 
and seven spirits making ten revealed spirits of God 
in the world. This doing away with the petty idea 
of the Bible being measured by seven because seven 
being a complete number, which is no more a com- 
plete number than any other number if the articles 
are complete. The seven spirits of God are the 
eyes of the Lamb; running to and fro through the 
whole world, beholding the good and the evil. This 
seems to be the office of these seven spirits of God. 
Then these seven spirits had an important part in 
all creation, and we get the names of these spirits 
from the work that was done each day of the crea- 


Strong Delusions 


213 


tion. So the name of the first spirit is the spirit 
of creation; the second spirit of separation; the 
third spirit of production; the fourth the spirit of 
distinction of time; the fifth is the spirit of life; 
the sixth is the spirit of dominion; the seventh is 
the spirit of rest and sanctification. They all had 
a part in all creation, and each an individual part 
as you will see by the designation of their names. 
Then we are made in the image and likeness of God 
more after the seven spirits than any other. First, 
we are like God in creation, or rather we have the 
spirit of creation, and we are creating good or evil 
all the time of our lives. We create our own char- 
acter, either good or bad, for ourselves, and we 
only are responsible for it. And this character 
created and made of good deeds to stand in joy be- 
fore the throne of God, continually developing 
what we have practiced during our lives. To in- 
crease in joy and glory more and more, and still 
more and more through eternity. Or on the other 
hand for evil into hell to develop past crime com- 
mitted in torment eternal. To suffer worse and 
worse through eternity, worse and worse. Then 
we possess the spirit of separation; we separate 
everything that we have in this life; we separate 
the good from the bad, the sound from the unsound, 
the chaff from the grain, in fact we hardly do any 
kind of work but it is a kind of separation. Then 
there has been millions and billions of dollars 
spent making and sending out machinery for the 
purpose expressly of separating what we produce 
and have to do with. Then we are like God in pro- 
duction; we produce everything that we live upon 
in some manner or other. We toil in the cultiva- 
tion of the soil for our living, or by trade or by 


214 


Strong Delusions 


traffic, or by profession of some kind, and without 
some production of some kind no individual could 
exist long. Then we exist to a great extent on the 
production of other individuals beside our own 
produce, and on the produce of other nations, by 
transportation. So we become a part of every- 
body’s interest to produce, and moreover it is a 
part of our nature, and the more we are enlight- 
ened the more productive we are, and the more 
need we have for our produce. And we are pos- 
sessed with much of the spirit of the distinction of 
time. God made the greater light to rule the day, 
and the lesser light to give light by night, and for 
signs and for seasons, and for days and months 
and for years. Then we divide our time by the 
signs that can be discerned, by these lights which 
rule over the day and the night, and by the in- 
genuity of the human family we invent the time- 
piece, by which we divide time so accurately that 
we can locate a time and place whereby two per- 
sons or more may meet at the same time for any 
purpose desired. And without timepieces we could 
not congregate with any degree of certainty. Then 
we are very much like God in life; when he made 
and created us he made us to live forever and never 
to die; this is very much evidenced by the first 
command that he gave our first parents, that if 
they ate of the tree of good and evil they should 
certainly die ; this command infers that they would 
not have died if they had not disobeyed; and fur- 
thermore the command would have been no re- 
straint to them if they had been subject to death. 
And as further evidence that they were not subject 
to death, when God drove them out of the garden 
he in his great wisdom placed cherubims and a 


Strong Delusions 


215 


flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep 
the way of the tree of life; lest the man put forth 
his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat 
and live forever. His foreseeing the awful condi- 
tion of the human existence, if there had been such 
a thing. So this is positive evidence of our living 
forever from the beginning. Then again God says 
by one man’s transgression death passed upon all. 
But as it is, and that we are like God in life, we 
are responsible for our own lives, and to a great 
extent for our neighbor’s life also. Then Jesus 
came into this world that we might have life, and 
have life more abundantly. And God gave also 
life to the beast of the earth and to the fowl of the 
heaven and to the fish of the sea. Then we are like 
God in the spirit of dominion; and he gave us do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
of the air, and over the cattle and over all the 
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
upon the earth. We all want to rule over some of 
the things of earth, and we make great strides for 
rule power, and abuse ourselves and those things 
which we are entrusted with by the hand of the 
giver of all good things. Even little children show 
the spirit of dominion in great proportions, enforc- 
ing their rights by might and strength. Then we 
are like him in rest and sanctification ; a great deal 
more in rest. We like rest and it is indispensable; 
we cannot live without rest ; and a great deal of it. 
We have to rest from our toil and labor; then we 
have to rest and take sleep on account of our phys- 
ical nature, brought on us more by transgression 
than by any creative means or power, or any other 
law. We lack very much in sanctification. In 
the first place we are foreign from the idea of being 


216 


Strong Delusions 


good; we are so inclined to go wrong that nothing 
but death seems to arouse us from the state of leth- 
argy or dying state of sin and transgression that we 
are so accustomed to; not knowing or realizing 
that joy and happiness is in living a life of fear and 
obedience to God. We are so ignorant as to God’s 
word that we fail to catch any light or glory in his 
teachings, all because we do not read his word. 
But when we turn and look at the spirits on the op- 
posite side, we wonder. Think of only ten revealed 
spirits of God in the world. And through his 
word there are what may be termed swarms of 
devil’s spirits, for instance, seven devils cast out of 
Mary Magdalene, and again the man in the tombs, 
who was full of devils insomuch that they were 
named legion, which number varies from eight to 
ten thousand, these being cast out of one man. 
Now count on an average between the two persons 
here healed, and then look around and see the num- 
ber of people living in sin, and apply the result of 
the average-, and there will be over four thousand 
to each, taking the lowest number stated ; now mul- 
tiply and you can see. They are as the sands of 
the sea for multitude. And these spirits seem to 
be just as persistent as they are numerous. En- 
tering into every soul possible by any kind of de- 
ception ; the Devil fought in heaven and his angels ; 
and Michael and his angels fought and prevailed, 
and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb ; 
and the great dragon was cast out, that old ser- 
pent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth 
the whole world; he was cast out unto the earth 
and his angels were cast out with him. By their 
testimony they overcame through the blood of the 
Lamb. The Devil that fought to take the kingdom 


Strong Delusions 


217 


of heaven was overpowered by Michael and his an- 
gels and cast out, and their place was not found 
in heaven any more. So he did not obtain any 
kingdom in heaven, neither will he succeed in get- 
ting a kingdom here, though he fight wrathfully 
and with subtilty. So you see that the Devil has no 
kingdom, never did have, and never will have. Thus 
the Devil and his spirits are at war with the rem- 
nant of the seed of the woman, which keep the com- 
mandments of God, and have the testimony of 
Jesus Christ. I do not see any reason why any in- 
telligent person cannot understand any part or all 
of God’s revealed word, if they would seek in the 
right way, the way that God has laid down in his 
Word. He gave his word to good men of like pas- 
sion as we; and if we will ask and cry to him 
mightily he says he will give wisdom and upbraid 
not. So why not ask and be wise? Now don’t un- 
derstand that we are talking about the mysteries 
of the kingdom of heaven, for we will not know 
them, but the plain statement of God’s word. We 
can know that, if we will seek. For he says : Seek 
and ye shall find. 


218 


Strong Delusions 


CHAPTER XIX. 

God’s Kingdom Here Upon Earth. 

God the Father who created the heaven, and the 
heaven of the heavens, and earth and all that in 
them is; and of the angels he saith; who maketh 
his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. 
Bless the Lord, O my soul ! O Lord, my God, thou 
art very great; thou art clothed with honor and 
majesty; who does wonderful and great things. 
(And who is able to accomplish wonderful things 
through thy people if they will obey thy voice and 
hearken to thy word. God commanded Abraham 
to go into a place which he should after receive for 
an inheritance, and he obeyed, and by the obedi- 
ence of Abraham God raised up a great nation of 
people, among which were many just and holy 
men, that God made himself known unto his people 
which were called prophets; God talking through 
them and making himself known.) The greatest of 
all his creation is man; and the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life and he became a liv- 
ing soul. God made man in his own glory, and 
for the sole purpose of glorifying his name. He 
also gave him dominion over all the earth, to sub- 
due it. He gave unto man the sovereign and su- 
preme right and authority to govern and control 
the earth and every living creature. The command 
of God unto man was unlimited, it extended over 
the whole earth and all production. God was very 
scientific in all his creation. He created and made 
the earth, and doubtless it was covered with water ; 
and God spake and there was light, and God di- 


Strong Delusions 


219 


vided the light from darkness, and he called the 
light day and he called the darkness night. Now 
the next thing was to separate the waters from the 
waters, and God made a firmament and divided 
the waters which were under the firmament from 
the waters which were above the firmament, and it 
was so; and God called the firmament heaven. 
Then the dry land appeared when the waters were 
gathered together, and God called the dry land 
earth, and the gathered waters, seas. Now he 
causes the earth to produce food and fruit. Then 
God makes the sun, moon and stars, and set them 
in the firmament of the heaven for a perpetual 
light to rule over the day and over the night, and 
to divide the light from the darkness. These above 
named things were made and created during the 
four first days, all in their order; first, the crea- 
tion of matter, second, the separation of things; 
third, the production of food, grass and fruit, both 
after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the 
earth; fourth, lights to rule day and night. And 
after all this earth and heaven were complete and 
finished, and all in motion and at work in proper 
scientific form, by the wonderful wisdom and 
knowledge of God, and all the distinct elements 
established, of light and darkness, water and earth, 
and all that pertains to these creative bodies, and 
causing these bodies to produce everything that 
was necessary and essential to life; he then began 
to make the living creatures to fill the waters and 
the air, each one after his kind and species, both 
of the air and of the waters ; and blessed them say- 
ing : be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in 
the seas and let fowls multiply on the earth. And 
in the evening part of the day God made the lowest 


220 


Strong Delusions 


of the living creatures, after his kind, and cattle 
after his kind, and everything that creepeth upon 
the earth after his kind; and he saw that it was 
good and spoke of all that he had made as being 
good. And God saw everything that he had made 
and behold it was very good. We find that God in 
creating made advancement in greater and greater 
things until he came to man, which is much the 
greatest thing of all, so much so that he is given 
entire dominion over everything. And as the seed 
of every kind of herb, grass and fruit were in the 
earth and had not grown because the Lord had not 
as yet caused it to rain upon the earth; but there 
went up a mist from the earth and watered the 
whole face of the ground and caused the grass to 
grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man, 
that food might be brought forth out of the earth 
by him; and oil to make his face to shine, and 
bread to strengthen man’s heart. And there was 
not a man to till the ground. This is the first in- 
timation in God’s word that man would fall, as it 
refers to tilling of the soil, this toil not being nec- 
essary under previous conditions prior to the fall. 
For in the first place God planted a garden east- 
ward in Eden, and there he put the man he had 
formed; and the Lord God made grow out of the 
ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and 
good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of 
the garden, and the tree of knowldge of good and 
evil. When we think of the grandeur of God and 
of his glorious work we are lost in all our imagina- 
tion of the loveliness of that garden; language is 
inadequate to express the beautiful situation. Or 
minds are too human and short of comprehension 
to grasp the glorious idea of a God planted and a 


Strong Delusions 


221 


God grown, and a God arranged, and a God assort- 
ment of every kind of tree to look upon, and the 
magnified delicious fruits that the great loving 
God can produce. Then the tree of life in the 
midst of the garden, the most conspicuous of them 
all, and king of all the trees, to impart life, with 
its precious, weeping boughs, loaded with the most 
delicous fruit, affording most exquisite pleasure 
and greatest gratification of mind and heart in 
giving life to the soul. And to make this garden 
more desirable and attractive he made a river that 
became four heads; the source which watered the 
garden so the fertility was increased, so the produc- 
tion was great and glorious, very gratifying and 
pleasing, and richly decorated with all sorts of 
pleasurable things to make one happy. So the 
Lord God took the man and put him into the gar- 
den of Eden to dress it and to keep it, and at the 
same time gave him access to all that was in that 
most sublime, perfect paradise, full of all manner 
of fruits and of fine gold, and bdellium and the 
onyx stone. This was certainly a gorgeously ar- 
ranged place for the glory and happiness and felic- 
ity of the human family to live without toil or 
pain, without fear of any evil whatever, or death. 
But alas the man disobeyed and ate of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil. Then God condemned 
him and drove the man out of the Garden of Para- 
dise to till the earth and to eat bread by the sweat 
of his face ; until thou return unto the ground, for 
out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art and 
unto dust thou shaft return. And for disobeying and 
eating the fruit God cursed the ground for Adam’s 
sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of 
thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring 


222 


Strong Delusions 


forth to thee. And from this time forward, sor- 
row, pain, toil, crying and death have been the 
fate of the human family. This curse covering 
everything in creation, the earth and every living 
thing. Now God through the obedience of man be- 
gins the great work of redemption. But as time 
advanced and the sons of God multiplied on the 
face of the earth, the sons of God saw that the 
daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of 
all which they chose, and they bore children unto 
them, and the same became mighty men, which 
were of old men of renown. There were giants on 
the earth in those days; and the Lord said, my 
spirit shall not always strive with man, for every 
imagination of the thought of his heart was only 
evil continually. And God saw that the wicked- 
ness of man was great in the earth, and the Lord 
repented that he had made man on earth and 
grieved him at his heart. Just see what a man will 
do, that after God made him and put him in such 
a glorious place as the garden of Eden, he dis- 
obeyed and went into so much sin and wickedness 
that it repented God the Father and grieved him 
at his heart. And the Lord said I will destroy 
man whom I have created from the face of the 
earth, both man and beast and the creeping things, 
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I 
have made them. God in making and creating 
things began at the least and came up, but when 
he talks of disobeying he mentions the greatest 
one of his creatures, the man, the only one that has 
sinned, and guilty of disobedience, and came down 
in like manner, step by step in naming each spe- 
cies from man down to the fowl of the air. But 
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah 


Strong Delusions 


223 


was a just man and perfect in his generation, and 
Noah walked with God. And God commanded 
Noah, and he believed, and built an ark of gopher 
wood, and pitched it without and within so that it 
would not leak. So Noah obeyed and built the ark 
according to all that God said, so did he, and God 
brought in the waters of the flood upon them, and 
destroyed them all, though he suffered long with 
them while the ark was in building; for about the 
space of one hundred years. And he commanded 
Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives to 
go into the ark that he had built, and they obeyed 
and went in, and took into the ark two and two of 
all beasts and all cattle and all the fowls of the 
air, every bird of every sort, and of every creeping 
thing that creepeth on the whole face of the earth ; 
of all the flesh wherein is the breath of life. And 
they went in, male and female, of all flesh, as God 
commanded him. And the Lord shut him in and 
the fountains of the great deep were broken up and 
the windows of heaven were open. Now as all these 
people that God had made and created that had 
brought our great Creator and Maker to grief, and 
had grieved him at his heart, began to feel the 
wrathful anger of a sin avenging God poured out 
upon them in the pouring down of such great tor- 
rents of water that they could not move even out of 
their places, and had not time to cry for mercy, 
and if they had time to call for mercy they could 
not be heard for it was too late, too late. And ev- 
ery living thing that creepeth upon the earth was 
drowned in like manner as was man. Now God 
was pouring out his fierce anger without mercy on 
these people for the piercing grief they had caused 
his great heart to feel by their wickedness through 


224 


Strong Delusions 


disobedience. And the rain was upon the earth 
forty days and forty nights. And after one hun- 
dred and fifty days the Lord caused a wind to pass 
over the earth, and the waters assuaged, and God 
spake unto Noah saying: Go forth out of the ark, 
thou and thy wife, and thy sons and thy sons’ wives 
with thee; and bring forth with thee every living 
thing that is with thee, of all the flesh that is upon 
the earth, and of every creeping thing that they 
may breed abundantly in the earth and be fruit- 
ful and multiply upon the earth. And Noah 
obeyed and he built an altar unto the Lord and of- 
fered sacrifice of burnt offering on the altar. And 
God was pleased with him and God blessed Noah 
and his sons and said unto them: be fruitful and 
multiply and replenish the earth. And God deliv- 
ered every living thing that there was unto 
Noah, and all creation. And God said that he 
would require man’s life at the hand of every man’s 
hand. And God established his covenant with 
Noah and his sons and with their seed after them 
and all living creatures with them; that all flesh 
should not be cut off any more by the waters of a 
flood, and he set his bow in the cloud for a sign or 
a token, that he will remember his everlasting cove- 
nant; that he will not destroy the earth and all 
flesh any more by water. Now as the people mul- 
tiplied and began to spread over all the earth God 
appeared unto Abraham and said : Get thee out of 
thy country and from thy kindred and from thy 
father’s house unto a land I will show thee. And 
I will make a great nation of thee, and I will bless 
thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a 
blessing. And I will bless them that will bless 
thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee 


Strong Delusions 


225 


shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So 
Abraham, in obedience to God’s command, took 
his wife, Sarah, and Lot, his brother’s son, and all 
their substance that they had gathered, and the 
souls that they had gotten in Haran, and they 
wenth forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into 
the land of Canaan they came; and as Abraham 
traveled from place to place he would erect an 
altar unto God and sacrifice unto God. And the 
Word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision 
saying, fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy 
exceeding great reward. And Abraham having as 
yet no heir believed, and he brought him forth 
abroad, and said, look now towards heaven, and 
tell the stars if thou be able to number them; and 
he said unto him, so shall thy seed be, and Abra- 
ham believed God, and he counted it unto him 
for righteousness. And as Abraham trusted and 
believed the Lord, he began to reveal unto man 
that he would set up a kingdom, and the 
establishment of it here on earth. And when 
Abraham was ninety and nine years old the Lord 
appeared unto him and said unto him: I am the 
Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect, 
and God talked with him after he had fallen upon 
his face, saying: behold, my covenant is with thee, 
thou shalt be a father of many nations. Thy 
name shall not any more be called Abram, but thy 
name shall be Abraham, and thou shalt be exceed- 
ing fruitful, and kings shall come out of thee. In 
God’s promise that kings should come out of Abra- 
ham’s loins signified that a son should be born 
unto him, pointing also to the Son of God and 
man; at the same time his seeing his day, as the 
Saviour said, when he referred to Abraham desir- 


15 


226 


Strong Delusions 


in g to see his day, and he saw it. Wherefore the 
Lord established his covenant with Abraham and 
his seed after him that they should keep forever by 
the sign of circumcision in the flesh. And any of 
God’s house refusing to accept, or keep the cove- 
nant of circumcision of the flesh he was to be cut 
off from his people. And Abraham’s wife was not 
to be called Sarai any more, but Sarah thou shalt 
call her, and I will bless her and give thee a son 
also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she shall be 
a mother of nations and kings of people shall be of 
her. And Abraham hearkened unto God and did 
all that he told him, and after this Abraham fed 
three angels that appeared unto him at the tent 
door, and gave them water to wash their feet while 
they rested under the tree, for it was in the heat 
of the day. And the angels comforted their hearts 
when Abraham took butter and milk, and of the 
tender calf which he had dressed, and set it before 
them, and he stood by them under the tree and 
they did eat, after that they passed on; for this 
cause have ye come and they said, to do as thou 
hast said. And these men passed on and went 
down and destroyed the city of Sodom and all that 
country. But God remembered Abraham, and sent 
Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he 
overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt ; and about 
this time God began to perform judgments and 
wonders through Abraham and his seed. He re- 
proved kings and destroyed nations; he raised up 
mighty men to be judges over his people, to teach 
and to lead them. And told them at various times 
and in different places and through different men, 
even Moses, and Joshua and King David, and all 
the prophets and righteous men of his mighty arm 


Strong Delusions 


227 


and his wonderful works that he has performed in 
past time, through holy men whom he called and 
said, if you will obey me and keep my Word I will 
come and dwell with you, and be your God and ye 
shall be my people. The divine sentiment of this 
promise is that, if God’s chosen people would obey 
his word in keeping his laws and his statutes that 
he would have established his kingdom here upon 
the earth, without his only begotten Son having 
to come into this world, and suffered and died the 
shameful, disgraceful and ignominous death of the 
cross; by such people as were willing to dip their 
hands in the blood of their Master and cause his 
departure to look most frightfully and most dis- 
graceful of all criminalities. And I will just say 
right here that those people that committed that 
atrocious deed, in putting the blessed Master to 
death, did not do any worse than many people of 
this present day are doing, and I don’t have to re- 
sort to the lowest hovels and slums of debauchery 
to find the criminals against the Ruler of all things, 
either; for they can be found in high places, even 
at the head of all the people. As God’s people re- 
fused to obey his laws and his statutes, and rebel 
more and more, following other gods of the hea- 
then, he afflicted them with the sword and with 
sickness, very sore, and scattered them into strange 
lands, but when they repented and cried unto God, 
he heard them and delivered them out of their 
trouble. He sent the prophets unto them time and 
again, who persuaded them to turn unto the Lord 
and obey him, that he might turn unto them and 
bless them with a blessing that they would not be 
able to contain, but they transgressed more and 
more, so nations rose up against them and de- 


228 


Strong Delusions 


stroyed their cities and their lands, and carried 
them into strange lands to be servants and to be 
oppressed, and to be a hissing and an astonish- 
ment to all people and nations of the heathen. But 
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob and David, and saved a remnant 
of his people ; and at his appointed time he sent his 
two witnesses to testify to his great name above 
all that he had done before. John, that mighty 
voice, crying in the wilderness, repent for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand. Bring forth fruit meet 
for repentance for the ax is laid at the root of the 
tree; therefore every tree that bringeth not forth 
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Pre- 
pare yourselves for the incoming of the Holy One 
of God, that was pointed out with exact precision 
by all the holy prophets that came before. Then 
Jerusalem and all the country went out to John 
to be baptized in the river Jordan; and Jesus came 
to John also to be baptized, but John forbade him 
and said: I have need to be baptized of thee and 
comest thou to me. And Jesus answering said 
unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it be- 
cometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he 
suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized 
went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the 
heavens were open unto him, and he saw the spirit 
of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon 
him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then 
Jesus after he was baptized was led up of the spirit 
into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. And 
after he had passed through these temptations he 
returned and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon 
the seacoast, in the border of Zebulon and Naph- 


Strong Delusions 


229 


tali. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
by Esaias the prophet saying: the land of Zebnlon 
and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea 
beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The peo- 
ple which sat in darkness saw great light, and to 
them that sat in the region and shadow of death, 
light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began 
to preach and say: Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand ; continuing his travel by the sea 
of Galilee preaching and calling men of his choice 
to follow him, to become his disciples. And as they 
obediently followed him at his call and ever were 
with him in all his travel during his three years of 
constant labor of righteousness. Opening the eyes 
of the blind, making the lame to walk, cleansing 
the lepers of their filthy plague, unstopping the 
ears of the deaf, and opening up the impervious- 
ness of the ear that renders a man incapable of the 
joy of sound. Raising the dead and restoring them 
to their people; and preaching the gospel to the 
poor. And giving life and life more abundantly, 
and joy of heart and soul unspeakable and full of 
glory ; healing the wounds and bruises of the 
broken-hearted, and anointing with the oil of glad- 
ness; making the crooked way straight and the 
rough way smooth, and to bring the mountains 
down low and raise the valleys up. And teaching 
the multitudes by parables and rebuking devils 
and casting them out, setting aside the doctrine of 
men and establishing the truth that shall stand 
forever, by fulfilling all that was spoken by the 
mouth of the holy prophets concerning himself. 
Destroying the works of the Devil and establishing 
God’s kingdom upon earth, that his will be done 
upon earth as in heaven. Showing people that the 


230 


Strong Delusions 


law of God hangs upon the great principle of doing 
unto others as we would have others do to us. Dur- 
ing those three years of his active, personal and 
humane life he spent a great deal of his life in 
prayer; many times the entire night talking with 
the Father, doubtless for the Father’s direction 
and approval, for he repeatedly stated that I and 
the Father are one. And as his life work began 
to come to a close, after living such a pure and 
spotless holy life, there cannot be the least inti- 
mation, or shadow of reflection cast over him; he 
revealed to his disciples about his second coming, 
and gave the signs of his approach, so we might 
know when the time is drawing nigh, and gave 
them a chance to watch and be ready for he would 
come at a day, and an hour when you are not look- 
ing, or as a thief in the night. Then previous to 
his betrayal, he retired into the garden of Geth- 
semane, and saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here, 
while I go yonder and pray. Then saith he unto 
them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death. Tarry ye here and watch with me. And he 
went a little farther, and fell on his face, and 
prayed, saying, O, my Father, if it be possible, let 
this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, 
but as thou wilt. On this ordeal or severe trial 
approaching, this prayer shows to our minds the 
conclusive idea of the suffering of the human body 
of the divine man. And when he returned to his 
disciples, and found them asleep, and saith unto 
Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one 
hour? Thus, showing in his disciples the weakness 
of poor sinful man. Then he went away and 
prayed the second time, and came and found them 
asleep again, and went the third time and praying 


Strong Delusions 


231 


saying the same words. And being in an agony he 
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it 
were great drops of blood falling down to the 
ground. Showing to the full extent the idea of the 
kingdom of heaven suffering violence, so far as the 
human side is concerned, and the violent take it by 
force. And an angel appeared unto him from 
heaven strengthening him. These supplications 
were it appears preparatory for the betrayal and 
trial of the Son of God. Jesus said unto them: 
are ye come out as against a thief with swords and 
staves? When I was daily with you in the temple 
ye stretched forth no hand against me, but this is 
your hour and the hour of darkness. Jesus saith, 
thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my 
Father, and he shall presently give me more than 
twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the 
Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? If 
we are to judge by the sentiment of this last prayer 
of Jesus that this was the most trying temptation 
of the whole life of the Son of God we certainly 
are wrong. But he said not my will but thine be 
done. Some great theologians say, and believe, that 
Jesus Christ’s sufferings were more intense in the 
garden of Gethsemane than they were when nailed 
on the cross, or at any time. But, I differ very 
much as to that idea with them. So we will fol- 
low him from here through to the end. I know 
that the agonies of any human being were very in- 
tense, to cause suffering to such an extent as to 
produce sweat like great drops of blood. But 
when he turned from this garden of such supplica- 
tions, only to meet the betrayer, of whom he said, 
if it had been an enemy that he could have borne 
it, but it was a friend. We went into the house of 


232 


Strong Delusions 


God together and took sweet counsel by the way; 
it was a man, mine equal. And the whole band 
laid hands on Jesus and led him away to Caiaphas 
the high priest, where the scribes and the elders 
were assembled. And this being the first time that 
the people ever laid hands on Jesus, how humiliat- 
ing and depressing. When you see a man arrested 
for a crime he seems very much humbled; and Jesus 
being arrested and innocent, also the Creator and 
Maker of us all; how awful! And during this 
time the disciples all forsook him and denied him. 
Then the great council of the Jews which consisted 
of about seven ty-one, or two, members were seated 
to try the Maker of us all. Think of a court of hu- 
man beings sitting on the judgment seat to try the 
God man, the maker of everything, and the life and 
preserver of us and all things. Now the chief 
priests and elders and all the council sought false 
witness against Jesus, to put him to death. But 
found none. They could not find any evidence to 
condemn the blessed Master; but at the last came 
two false witnesses and said, This fellow said, I 
am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build 
it in three days. Then the high priest put Jesus 
on his oath saying : I adjure thee by the living God, 
that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the 
Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, thou hast said; 
nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see 
the son of man sitting on the right hand of power, 
and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the 
high priest charged Jesus with blaspheming; and 
rent his clothes, signifying his abhorrence of the 
statement, and said what further need have we of 
witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blas- 
phemy. Then he appealed to the court and asked, 


Strong Delusions 


233 


what think ye? They answered him and said, he 
is worthy of death. In all the evidence the sanhe- 
drim found no evidence, but condemned him on his 
own statement, it being his acknowledgment of his 
sonship and of his second coming. Then, after they 
had pronounced the sentence of death they spit in 
his face, one of the most insulting things imagin- 
able; the people of this day and time would fight 
you if you spit on their dog; and just think for a 
moment of any people, or set court, trying a crim- 
inal and him guilty, and after he being convicted 
and sentence pronounced, then to spit in his face, 
though he be the most degraded man, or even a ne- 
gro. It would be so insulting and so heathenish 
that all decency would rise up to oppose any such 
gross abuse or contempt. Then compare such in- 
solence committeed by the professed people of God, 
toward a man that never did any wrong but did 
good and kindness, even to those that were laying 
hands on him. They also buffeted him and others 
smote him with the palms of their hands, striking 
with blows by the fist on the face, ear or head, oth- 
ers smiting him on the mouth and face and beating 
him saying unto him : prophesy unto us, thou Christ, 
who is he that smote thee? After Caiaphas had done 
all this shame to the blessed Master, and the night 
passed, and when the morning came, all the chief 
priests, and elders of the people took counsel 
against Jesus, to put him to death; and they bound 
him like a criminal, made him fast by chains or 
fetters, following the traitor’s precepts when he 
said, hold him fast for it is he, when he gave the 
sign. And after they bound him they led him 
away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the gov- 
ernor. Then Jesus stood before the governor, and 


234 


Strong Delusions 


was put through a rigid examination as to who he 
was, and when the chief priests and elders piled 
upon him all sorts of accusations he answered 
nothing. Then Pilate called his attention to all 
that was witnessed against him and he never an- 
swered the governor. Then the governor, accord- 
ing to the custom at the feast of the passover, of- 
fered the people the release of a prisoner, whom 
they would; Jesus, or one notable prisoner for se- 
dition and murder, Barabbas, and the multitudes 
being persuaded by the priests and elders to ask 
for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. And the gov- 
ernor asked which of the twain will ye that I re- 
lease unto you? And they said, Barabbas. Then 
inquired the governor, what shall I do with Jesus 
which is called Christ ? They all with one accord 
say unto him : let him be crucified. Pilate the gov- 
ernor said: Why, what evil hath he done? He 
knowing that for envy Jesus was bound before him 
as a criminal, or one that had broken the laws of 
the land, or involved in some crime; and also 
knowing Barabbas was a murderer, and he w r as 
wanted to be released ; and the governor willing to 
satisfy the multitude as they cried out the more, 
saying, let him be crucified. Then Pilate, when 
he saw that he could prevail nothing, but rather a 
tumult was made, something like what is termed 
unwritten law, being by force; he took water and 
washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I 
am innocent of the blood of this just person; see 
ye to it. Then the people answered and said: let 
his blood be on us and on our children. These 
blood-thirsty suckers were willing to take the 
blood of the Lord God to their guilt and stain their 
children’s hands and hearts forever. And there 


Strong Delusions 


235 


are legions of the people now at this day that are 
equally as blood guilty as they were, and are cry- 
ing out; crucify him. If they do not use these 
words they use curse words of blasphemy and get 
drunk and tell lies, and do all kinds of murder to 
their fellow man and to themselves. Just a few 
days past a poor fool fastened his heels to a two- 
horse cart after he had hitched the horses and then 
laid on the whip making them run furiously, and 
beat his life out in short order. And are not peo- 
ple crucifying the Son of God and man when they 
are doing any crime, surely they are. Then Pilate 
released Barbaras unto them, and when he had 
scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 
Just think of the governor of a country deciding 
the innocence of a man, then humiliating him by 
scourging him, and this he did after washing his 
hands in water as a token of innocency; what hy- 
pocrisy, and the worst is that it generally prevails ; 
surely there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. Then the soldiers of the governor took 
Jesus into the common hall and the whole band of 
soldiers gathered unto him, and stripped him and 
put on him a scarlet robe, or rather dressed him in 
blood, and plaited a crown of thorns and put it 
upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and 
they mocked him by bowing the knee before him, 
saying: Hail, King of Jews! And they spit upon 
him and took the reed and smote him on the head 
as they did before Caiaphas, with the vilest insults 
that could be perpetrated by the most unprincipled 
soldiers ever permitted to live, were cast upon him, 
and all this done by his own subjects. And he the 
Maker and Creator subjected himself to such atro- 
cious abuse and disgrace by this destitute, unre- 


236 


Strong Delusions 


strained, profligate band of the governor’s soldiers ; 
such awful shame. And as I have said, we have 
plenty of so-called Christians living right here in 
this great America. Right now, for instance, just 
view the rioting and struggling and upheavals go- 
ing on between the two aspiring candidates of the 
republican party for the office of chief magistrate 
of this so-called civilized nation. And further, 
threats and bloodshed in the conquest is inevitable. 
Then if the president and ex-president will make 
such wrangling and depart from all the principles 
of decency and all honor, how do we expect their 
subjects to live above such demoralizing examples 
set before us by the leaders? It is all bosh, it is 
only a figure of what is contained within; they 
must be full of dead men’s bones, and there are 
dogs enough in existence to eradicate them. And 
after these soldiers in the presence of the governor 
and the priest and the elders of the people had 
mocked Jesus and satisfied their pernicious de- 
sires, they took the blood colored robe off from him 
and put his own raiment on him, and led him away 
to crucify him. And they laid his cross on him 
and led him away, and he shrank beneath it; and 
the soldiers made a man of Cyrene, Simon by 
name, bear his cross by compulsion. And when 
they came to a place called Golgotha, the same is 
a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink 
mingled with gall; he tasted it but would not 
drink. After such vile treatment, not being satis- 
fied they mixed gall with vinegar. This mixture 
represents the bitterest solution, full of poison ex- 
tracted from the weed known as what we call hem- 
lock, containing a very large amount of poison. I 
wonder if there are any people at this day giving 


Strong Delusions 


237 


the Master gall to drink? Yes, just legions df 
them, just billions of them ; take into consideration 
the heathen world, and all who don’t believe in the 
civilized world, and count and see when you will 
end. And every man not living strictly a holy life 
is certainly giving him gall to drink of the most 
bitter that can be produced, by the sharp, cutting, 
serpen tile tongues of the most sarcastic and subtle, 
and adderlike kind, which is the most viperish 
kind; the sort of tongue that sets the whole course 
of nature on fire, even the fire of hell, the most 
stinging sort. And God says of such tongue, that 
he will likewise destroy thee forever. He shall 
take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling 
place and root thee out of the land of the living. 
Selah. This is the tongue that loves all devouring 
words. Yes, this is gall, most poison gall. Selah. 
Then they crucified him and parted his garments 
and casting lots for his seamless coat ; and in so do- 
ing the prophecy was fulfilled. Now when they had 
accomplished their full purpose, to completion, in 
nailing him to the rugged cross with iron spikes, 
their style of criminal execution, most shameful. 
See how wonderful and extensive the mercies of 
God are, no human mind can conceive. Let us re- 
joice in our God of salvation. Let all the people 
praise our God. For he is so merciful, and good as 
to let us live. They all sit down and watch him 
there, and Pilate the governor, set up over his head 
his accusation written : This is Jesus the King of 
the Jews. They crucified two thieves also with 
him, one on either side, trying by example to put 
him on a level with all rogues and robbers. And 
now while they had him nailed to the cross, inflict- 
ing most intolerable pain and suffering, they 


238 


Strong Delusions 


passed by wagging their heads, a ludicrous mo- 
tion, showing the thread of their reviled language 
thrown at him while on the cross; and saying: 
Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in 
three days, save thyself, and if thou be the Son of 
God come down from the cross. They all said: he 
saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the 
King of Israel let him come down from the cross 
and we will believe him. Still further with the 
most floutish words and contemptible actions that 
could be thought of, and perpetrated by any set of 
mockers, were thrown in his teeth ; saying he 
trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will 
have him, signifying that he was too mean for any- 
thing. Still continued saying he said, I am the 
Son of God. The thieves also cast these reproaches 
in his teeth. Then from the sixth hour to the ninth 
there was darkness over all the land, and about the 
ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying: 
Eli! Eli! lama sabachthani f Equal to saying: My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And 
they that stood by said he calleth for Elias, and 
one of them ran immediately with a sponge of vine- 
gar and gave him to drink; again handing it to 
him by extending it upon a reed; others said, let's 
see if Elias will come to save him, let us wait and 
see. And just about this time Jesus cried again 
with a loud voice, and yielded up the ghost. And 
they saw, and behold, the veil of the temple was 
rent in twain from the top to the bottom ; and the 
earth did quake, and the rocks were rent; and the 
graves were opened; and many bodies of the 
the saints which slept arose, and came out of the 
graves after his resurrection and went into the 
holy city, and many saw them. And many of his 


Strong Delusions 


239 


disciples, both men and women stood afar off, and 
saw all these things. This quaking of the earth 
shows the sense of the statement of God’s word in 
saying, he tread the winepress of the wrath of God 
alone, without the city; and blood gushed out even 
to the horse’s bridle, for the space of one thousand 
six hundred furlongs. In all it looked a little like 
the judgment was going to take place; God was 
about to execute his wrath upon us. Now as we 
follow Jesus, step by step, from the garden of Geth- 
semane, we surely can see that his sufferings must 
have been immensely more than they were in the 
garden. For the angels ministered unto him when 
he prayed in the garden. It does seem that the suf- 
fering in the garden was most unbearable, and 
when we compare it with what he suffered after- 
ward, it had just begun. No wonder Jesus prayed 
for this cup to pass away. But all his disciples 
and earthly friends forsook him during the trying 
hours after his betrayal, and during his tribunal 
ordeal, and until it was over, and he was nailed to 
the cross, and all heaven and even the Father for- 
sook him, and he tread the winepress of the wrath 
of God alone. And after Jesus was dead, Joseph 
of Arimathea, who was his disciple, went to Pi- 
late and begged the body of Jesus, and it being de- 
livered to him he wrapped it in clean linen cloth 
and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had 
hewn out in a rock, and rolled a great stone to the 
door of the sepulchre and departed. And Mary 
Magdalene and the other Mary saw where he was 
laid. Then the chief priest and the Pharisees came 
together to Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that 
that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After 
three days I will rise again. Now these priests and 


240 


Strong Delusions 


Pharisees came to Pilate, with deception in their 
mouths in calling him a deceiver, for only one day 
previous when the earth quaked they acknowl- 
edged him truly to be the Son of God. And said, 
command that a guard be placed around the sep- 
ulchre until the third day, lest his disciples come 
by night, and steal him away, and say unto the peo- 
ple, he is risen from the dead; and the last error 
be worst than the first. You see they admit that 
they had committed one error in destroying the 
Son of God, in that his death was positive evidence 
that he was God’s Son; now if they were fooled 
again they would be at their wits’ end. So the gov- 
ernor charged them and they went their way and 
made the sepulchre as sure as possible. So they 
went and made the sepulchre sure, setting a watch 
and sealing the stone. These indications of the 
power of the government were considered to be 
safe, as had been proven by kings on many occa- 
sions in the past, as were supposed to be on this 
occasion. But this was a time that man’s signet 
could not stand, as robust as the chosen men of 
the guard were. The angel of the Lord descended 
from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone 
from the door of the sepulchre and sat upon it. His 
countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 
was white as snow. And when this God fearless 
band, and man defiant guard, that had been se- 
lected to defy their Maker and Creator, saw the 
angel they were so horrified for fear of the angel 
they did shake and became as dead men. And the 
angel turned to Mary Magdalene and to the other 
Mary, and said unto the women : fear not ye, for he 
is risen, as he said; come see the place where the 
Lord lay. I wish that everybody could observe the 


Strong Delusions 


241 


difference in the appearance and the effect that 
the angel had upon the guard, and upon these two 
disciples of Christ and believers in Jesus. How 
gently he spoke to them and said: I know whom 
ye seek, come, see where the Lord lay ; he is risen, 
go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen, as 
he told you ; and as they departed quickly, from the 
sepulchre with fear and great joy; Jesus met them 
saying: All hail; and they came and held him by 
the feet, and worshiped him. Then he appeared 
unto the eleven, afterward he was seen of upward 
of five hundred. After he had shown himself for 
about forty days, and communed with his disciples ; 
and talked with them about the things pertaining 
to the kingdom of God; and after he had led them 
out as far as Bethany, he lifted up his hands, and 
blessed them, and as they were looking upon him 
he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of 
their sight. And as his disciples looked stead- 
fastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two 
men stood by them in white apparel; which said: 
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from 
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
ye have seen him go into heaven. For the Lord 
himself, shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel and with the trump 
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then 
we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air; and so shall be forever with the Lord. 
Again he says, he shall send his angels with a great 
sound of the trumpet, and shall gather together 
his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other; and at the same time the an- 


16 


242 


Strong Delusions 


gels will separate the beast, and with him the false 
prophet which wrought miracles before him, with 
which he deceived them that had received the mark 
of the beast, and them that worshiped his image, 
and all dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and 
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth, and 
maketh a lie; these both were cast alive into a lake 
of fire burning with brimstone, and as they look 
and see the fire and brimstone they begin to call 
upon rocks and mountains to fall on us to hide us 
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great 
day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to 
stand? At the same time an angel came down 
from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit 
and a great chain in his hand ; and he laid hold on 
the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, 
and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and 
cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, 
and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the 
nations no more, until the thousand years should 
be fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed a lit- 
tle season. And while the dead arise, and the liv- 
ing are separated, and the Devil is being chained 
and put into the bottomless pit, and shut up in the 
same, the earth is restored to its former state; the 
mountains were brought low, and the valleys were 
raised up; the thorn tree will be changed to a fir 
tree, the thistle to the myrtle bush, and the wolf, 
and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion 
shall eat straw like the bullock, and the leopard 
shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf, the young 
lion and the fatling together, and a little child 
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall 
feed ; their young ones shall lie down together ; and 


Strong Delusions 


243 


the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, 
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the 
cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy 
in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be 
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea. This new heaven and new earth 
then was shown to John, the revelator on this 
wise, he said: I saw a new heaven and a new 
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were 
passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, 
John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband. And an angel carried 
me away in the spirit to a great and high moun- 
tain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jeru- 
salem, descending out of heaven from God, having 
the glory of God; and her light was like unto a 
stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear 
as crystal ; and I heard a great voice out of heaven 
saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them and they shall 
be his people, and God himself shall be with them 
and be their God. And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither shall 
there be any more pain, for the former things have 
passed away. And he that sat upon the throne 
said : Behold, I make all things new. And he said 
unto me, write : for these words are true and faith- 
ful. And this wonderful, and great city of the New 
Jerusalem was built of jasper stone and was great 
and high, and was overlaid with pure gold like 
unto clear glass. This great city had foundations 
for the wall and they were garnished with all man- 
ner of precious stones. The first foundation was 


244 


Strong Delusions 


jasper, the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; 
the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the 
sixth, sardius; the seventh, chysolite; the eighth, 
beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysopra- 
sus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 
These twelve pillars indicated the twelve apostles 
of the Lamb, for their names are written thereon, 
showing that they were the beginning of the build- 
ing of the New Jerusalem, the great city of God. 
And the city has twelve gates, and at the gates 
twelve angels, and names written thereon, which 
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children 
of Israel; and in the high estimation or further 
honor of the twelve tribes of Israel these twelve 
gates were twelve pearls; every gate was of one 
pearl; on the east there were three gates; on the 
north three gates; on the south three gates; and 
on the west three gates. And to add glory and ex- 
quisite sensibility to this grand city the streets are 
pure gold as clear as transparent glass ; and an an- 
gel measured the city with a golden reed, and also 
the gates and the walls thereof. And the city lieth 
four square, the length is as large as the breadth ; 
and he measured the city with the reed, twelve 
thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth 
and the height are equal. And I, John, saw no 
temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and 
the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had 
no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine 
in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
Lamb is the light thereof. And all the nations of 
them which are saved shall walk in the light of it ; 
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and 
honor into it; and there will be no night there, and 
the gates will be forever open, and all the honor 


Strong Delusions 


245 


and glory of the nations shall be brought into it. 
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything 
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abom- 
ination or maketh a lie; but such as make their 
calling and election sure by repentance and faith 
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When all those blood- 
washed, and God-forgiven souls enter into this 
great gigantic city; angel like, God built, God 
erected, made, moulded, God finished and Lamb es- 
tablished city, by the blood of Jesus, where there 
is life and life evermore. That great City, the new 
Jerusalem, descending down from heaven to abide 
on earth for one thousand years. The inhabitants, 
who are the angels, or rather the saints of God, led 
and accompanied by the tabernacle of God and the 
Lamb. All who have come out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. Those saints who 
have entered in through these twelve golden pearly 
gates, which lead into that great city of God; full 
of joy and peace with which the magnanimous con- 
tents of this great city, so eloquent that to extract 
the most fluent words, uttered with most masterly 
and gracious smoothness of all language on earth, 
is too faint and inadequate to give the least shade 
or obscure idea of the human mind, about the elo- 
quence or grandeur of this beautiful, rich, suitable, 
pleasing and most attractive Lamb-like city of 
God; wherein is all the glory of all the earth con- 
centrated in one great body. Overlaid by the most 
fashionable customary gold, which the finest archi- 
tectural hand and skill of the Almighty God could 
design, for the most elaborate beauty that could be 
pictured. And the great and high wall built of 
pure jasper stone, containing in size three billion 


246 


Strong Delusions 


three hundred and seventy-five million cubic miles, 
for the worshipful joy of those saints, mentioned 
above, and for their protection the wall of this 
great city contains not less than nineteen thousand 
seven hundred cubic miles that surrounds the camp 
of those saved souls, in which doubtless Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob are beyond all trouble. Then to 
add to the beauty and joy of God’s great city you 
will find a pure river of water of life, clear as crys- 
tal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of 
the Lamb, with its clear, crystal, sparkling wave, 
rolling on and on forevermore. Then in the 
midst of the street of it, and on either side 
of the river was there the tree of life, which 
bore twelve manner of fruit, yielding sweet, fra- 
grant, luscious fruits once every month of which we 
will eat and live forevermore. This tree with its 
tall and lowering limbs, bending, beneath the most 
delicious and life-giving fruits combined in one. 
Then look at its tall, lowering limbs extending to- 
ward the top of the great city of God, which is 
twelve thousand furlongs high; with its most ex- 
quisite and exact foliage which will be for the heal- 
ing of the nations. Thus is this great God-made 
and God-inspired city of grandeur situated just 
over in the great beyond where there is all joy and 
no more parting. So let us all do our best in this 
life to enter in through the straight and narrow 
gate. Thus it would be during the one thousand 
years of peace here on earth. The most sublime 
feature about this great city is the all-prevailing 
rule of truth, righteousness, justice and equity. 
These attributes of God and all the saints are just 
rolling on and on throughout all eternity. The peo- 
ple of God wanted to be like all other people of all 
nations and desired a king, and under this king rule 


Strong Delusions 


247 


of human kings; they built walled cities and King 
Solomon built a great temple, known as the temple 
of God, and see the typical idea, pointing to this 
great city built by the living God. This temple built 
by Solomon was for its greatness unsurpassed by 
anything ever established upon earth, and for the 
sole purpose for all God’s people to concentrate and 
offer up sacrifice of worship and honor to God, ac- 
cording to his own command. Now in comparing 
this temple with the great city, New Jerusalem, we 
can instantly see the vast and excessive and wonder- 
fully prosperous growth of the kingdom under the 
rule of King Emanuel, the living Son of God. And 
God said all things are possible with him, and 
said: is anything too hard for me? Now this 
shows the great strength of our God and the un- 
bounded limits of his rule power, as well as his 
great creative power. Just think of the immense 
and capacious building that is represented in 
God’s word for his people that are saved of the 
faithful, will occupy and serve our great Master. 

I would like in this connection to refer to the 
careless and indifferent way that we use our day 
and opportunities of entering or enlisting, and 
marching to the greatest and most sublime victory 
that has ever been presented to any people that 
ever existed, since the fall of mankind. The people, 
the rank of young men enlist in an army of literal 
hardship, and spend their lives and achieve noth- 
ing except a little personal honor, and sometimes 
not that; moreover the whole human family are 
seeking some pursuit for wealth or honor of some 
kind, and lose sight of this great eternal honor and 
riches that surpass everything that can be com- 
pared with it. And this is so short and fades 
away, while the glorious kingdom is from everlast- 


248 


Strong Delusions 


in g to everlasting, and shall never come to an end. 
See how the prophets desired to see our day and 
could not enjoy the privileges of this wonderful 
king rule of Jesus Christ. 

These figures show how the prophet Isaiah was 
informed when he said: Then thou shalt see and 
flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be en- 
larged because the abundance of the sea shall be 
converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall 
come unto thee, and the house of the Lord shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and it 
shall be exalted above the hills, and the people 
shall flow unto it. These statements, with many 
others, show that the kingdom was looked to by 
the prophets and wise men as flourishing and being 
progressive in the days of the reign of King Jesus. 
All pointing to the establishment of God’s king- 
dom here upon the earth to abide. And as all their 
prophecies were fulfilled in him as pointing to his 
first coming, we very assuredly look for all that was 
said of his second coming to be fulfilled; and Jesus 
freely spoke of his second coming, and John in the 
Revelation gives such clear statements concerning 
the great city being established here, and Christ 
and God reigning here one thousand years, and at 
the end of the thousand years the books shall be 
opened ; and another book shall be opened, which is 
the book of life: and the dead shall be judged out 
of those things written in those books, according 
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead 
which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up 
the dead which were in them : and they were 
judged, every man according to his works. And 
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This 
is the second death. And he placed his saints on 


Strong Delusions 


249 


his right hand, and all those who fail to serve him 
on his left hand, and calling those on his right 
hand his sheep, and those on the left hand the' 
goats. Then the gre^t King shall say to those 
on his right hand : Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world. And the righteous are 
much surprised when he commends them in such 
gracious tones for their service unto him, and 
naming the manner in which it was done: for I 
was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was 
sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye 
came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer 
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, 
and fed thee; or thirsty and gave thee drink; or 
when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in ; or 
naked and clothed thee ; or when saw we thee sick, 
or in prison and came unto thee? And the King 
shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say 
unto yon, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me. We see that the whole com- 
mendation of the Great King and J udge 
entirely depends on how we treat the poor in spirit 
of this world. We must show our faith by onr 
works. Then shall he say to them on his left hand : 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was 
an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I was a stranger, 
and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me 
not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, 


250 


Strong Delusions 


or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and 
did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer 
them saying, Yerily, I say unto you, in asmuch as 
ye did it not unto one of the least of these, my breth- 
ren, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into 
life eternal. This is a full statement of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, showing the form or plan of the last 
great judgment, and the principle on which the de- 
cision would be based, that is truth. 


Strong Delusions 


251 


CHAPTER XX. 

The Judgment — Reference to the Prophecies. 

This last and final judgment will without doubt 
take place here on the earth at the end of the 
thousand years. And the Devil was loosed about 
the time of the judgment, and gathered all his host 
together, Gog and Magog, to make battle with the 
saints whose number is as the sand of the sea. And 
they went upon the face of the earth, and com- 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the be- 
loved city, and fire came down from God out of 
heaven, and devoured them. King David speaks of 
the wind up of all time; God hating the wicked, 
and says there will be an horrible tempest. Dread- 
ful, hideous ! Just think of a tempest that 
God calls an horrible tempest. Once, in my life, I 
saw a cyclone pass through North Carolina, and 
it literally twisted and tore down all the timber, 
blew houses away, barns, towns, and literally 
wasted everything that was in the current. This 
cyclone divided about the southwest part of the 
State, and made two trails, through this State; 
one passing through Moore County ; the other 
through Randolph, parallel with each other, mak- 
ing and leaving trails of devastation, blowing away 
and killing several people, chickens, cattle, de- 
stroying mills, and bridges, in fact everything that 
happened to be in the midst of its current, start- 
ing at the Gulf of Mexico, and blew a channel in 
the earth for miles, some places fifteen feet deep, 
blowing the rocks, dirt, and everything completely 
away, that was in the current. Just think of God 
using the words an horrible tempest. This cy- 


252 


Strong Delusions 


clone will hardly compare with it, and then think 
of great snares, holding us, and torrents of fire, 
and brimstone pouring down on the human soul; 
how, hardly, can we stand it. But we will be 
obliged to endure such awful punishment. Let us 
turn unto God, and flee his wrath to come. And 
upon the wicked he shall rain snares, and fire and 
brimstone, this shall be the portion of their cup. 
This surely will be intolerable. As to the statement, 
such thing has taken place in the past, even in 
the days of Sodom. God says, the Lord rained 
upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
from the Lord out of heaven. And this same 
judgment has been repeatedly told by many of the 
prophets, since it took place as a warning to us, 
or as a reminder, so that we may not forget that 
the end will surely come. And as Jesus was ex- 
plaining to his disciples, his second coming, he 
said, as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one 
part under heaven shineth unto the other part un- 
der heaven, so shall also the Son of man be in his 
day. But first must he suffer many things, and be 
rejected of this generation. And as it was in the 
days of Noah, so shall it be also, in the days of the 
son of man. They did eat, they drank, they mar- 
ried wives, they were given in marriage, until the 
day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood 
came, and destroyed them all. Thus Jesus warns 
us to be watching and repeats the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and says they were not 
looking for anything like that, but they were all 
destroyed. And this is for our warning that we 
be not caught in a state of lethargy. There shall 
not one escape that great dreadful day of the 
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great and 


Strong Delusions 


253 


the small, the rich and the poor alike, the proud 
and the humble, the strong and the weak, the en- 
lightened and the heathen, the good and the bad, 
the saint and the sinner, shall stand before the 
great judgment, for to give an account of their 
stewardship, or faithfulness, in serving God, or for 
rejecting him, and not serving him. Mark the 
statement of Jesus, that the Son of God shall suf- 
fer many things, of this generation, and be rejected 
of them. The signs of his coming are indicated in 
this people, that are living at the present time. We 
are forgetting God, as ancient nations have done. 
That people are more, and more taking things into 
their own hands, and less trust in God, who made 
them, is evident, they are forming into organized 
bodies, and leaguing together in every imaginable 
and conceivable way, and are going to make things 
go. Ah, we are getting much of the self controlled 
spirit in us these latter days. As I have shown, 
the people of this day are fulfilling the prophecy 
of our Lord Jesus Christ in his second coming. I 
want to refer my readers to what God has re- 
vealed, unto the prophets, and his apostles about 
the final judgment. In connection with the Word 
of our Lord Jesus Christ: Ye shall not respect 
persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small 
as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the 
face of man, for the judgment is God's, and the 
cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, 
and I will hear it. Here in this text, conveys the 
full sentiment of justice to all, and in another 
place, says that though anyone be so delicate that 
she dare not set the sole of her foot upon the earth, 
yet she must be brought into judgment. There- 
fore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, 


254 


Strong Delusions 


nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 
God shows David the final and eternal separation. 
The righteous and the wicked cannot dwell to- 
gether forever. I will sing of mercy, and judg- 
ment, unto thee Oh Lord, will I sing. Yea, God’s 
people will sing, because thou hast thus judged, 
and avenged thyself of the blood on the wicked. 
Many seek the ruler’s favor, but every man’s judg- 
ment cometh from the Lord. So an unjust man is 
an abomination to the just and he that is upright 
is an abomination to the wicked. This shows 
clearly that there are two places prepared, for to 
contain the human family, according to the judg- 
ment obtained, by each individual. Rejoice, O 
young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer 
thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways 
of thine heart, but know thou, for all these things, 
God will bring thee into judgment. Young man, if 
you are strong and gay, you must be judged too. 
For God will bring every work into judgment, 
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or 
whether it be evil. He will leave nothing out of the 
judgment but will show the whole truth, on both 
sides of each and every case. Judgment also will 
I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, 
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, 
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 
My friends, this is going to be a clean sweep, so 
you had just as well prepare to meet the final con- 
quest. He was taken from prison and from judg- 
ment, and who shall declare his generation? For 
he was cut off out of the land of the living ; for the 
transgressions of my people was he stricken. Is it 
possible that we are participating in these brutish 
crimes? Yes, they said let his blood be upon us, 


Strong Delusions 


255 


and our children; every time we sin we are cruci- 
fying him. And he was innocent, and was stricken 
for onr transgressions. We had better look out, 
for God gave the best that he had for our salvation, 
and if we do not accept his plan, he will give us 
the worst that he has for our eternal suffering, 
which is fire and brimstone. This punishment 
will be so bad that we cannot stand it ; yet we will 
have to endure the smoke of the torment, forever 
and ever. Run ye to and fro through the streets 
of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in 
the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if 
there be any that executeth judgment, that seek- 
eth the truth; and I will pardon it. And though 
they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. 
Now let some one run to and fro through all this 
great land of ours and see and know how many, if 
ye can find a man, that will do justice and judg- 
ment perfectly, if there shall any be found, and I, 
even I will forgive and pardon it. The Lord’s eyes 
are open to the truth and he will not abhor the 
truth, though it be from the most humble. For I 
know that the way of man is not in himself ; it is 
not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Oh, 
Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine 
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. God will 
pour out his fury and his wrathful anger upon the 
heathen, and them that hate him. Selah. Then 
the whole of our hope for obtaining a good judg- 
ment, depends on us turning therefore unto, our 
God, and doing mercy and judgment; and waiting 
on thy God continually. Now if we will turn unto 
God, and do no iniquity, then we will not be in 
danger of the judgment. Nor have any amaze- 
ment, for the Father judgeth no man, but hath 


256 


Strong Delusions 


committed all judgment unto the Son, that all 
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the 
Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth 
not the Father, which hath sent him. For all that 
heareth the Word of Jesus, and believe th on him, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into ever- 
lasting condemnation; but is passed from death 
unto life. And Jesus said, For judgment I am 
come into this world, that they which see not might 
see, and that they which see might be made blind. 
Then this great and eternal judgment begins right 
here, as we live, so we must begin to make for our- 
selves a character which will stand the test; meas- 
ured by the truth, which will stand forever, and 
ever. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temper- 
ance and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and 
answered, Go thy way, for this time. When I have 
a convenient season, I will call for thee. Just the 
description of the judgment, by a man of God, 
makes great big men like Governor Felix, tremble 
and fear. Now, if the statement will have this 
much effect on one that does not believe, what do 
you think the reality will be, when the awful word 
is pronounced in its thundering tones: Depart 
from me, ye that work iniquity? But Felix, like 
thousands of our big men, in this day and time, and 
in this great civilized America will set themselves 
up for money, and take bribes to prevent judg- 
ment. We never heard of Felix calling for to hear 
the gospel again, and it never returned so that he 
could hear any more, and this perverting of judg- 
ment, and proud living is going to come to an end 
some time, and it will be a hard thing for all trans- 
gressors. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or 
why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we 


Strong Delusions 


257 


shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 
There shall not one escape, great or small, old or 
young, rich or poor, bond or free. For it is writ- 
ten, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow 
to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 
Then everyone shall give account, you see, of him- 
self to God. And as it is appointed unto men once 
to die, but after this the judgment, just as sure, 
and as inevitable, that we will be brought before 
the judgment seat of the living God, as we die. 
And the decision of our judgment will be accord- 
ing to our works. And death prevails!, so that 
none will deny that this is true. So let us quit our- 
selves like men, and be ready for to meet our Mas- 
ter, in peace, at his appearing, for his second com- 
ing will be without sin unto salvation. For the 
time is come that judgment must begin at the 
House of God. And if it first begin at us, what 
shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel 
of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, 
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 
These two questions show very clearly the impos- 
sibility of us understanding, to a very little extent, 
the horrible and excessive terror there is in the fu- 
ture, for the sinner and ungodly, that the living 
God marvels, at the severity. For if we sin will- 
fully, after that we have received the knowledge 
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for 
sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the ad- 
versaries. He that despised Moses’ laws died 
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of 
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he 
be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot 
the Son of God, and crucified him, to himself 


17 


258 


Strong Delusions 


again, and put him to open shame, and hath 
counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he 
was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done de- 
spite unto the spirit of grace? For we know him 
who hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will 
recompense, saith the Lord. For the reward of his 
hands shall be given him. For he shall have judg- 
ment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; 
and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. There is 
no use for a man to say that he has faith, and has 
no good works; faith alone cannot save anyone. 
We are replenished by works if we have faith, then 
we will stand a right fair chance, of a good judg- 
ment. The sentiment of God’s word is, though one 
be so delicate, that they dare not put the sole of 
their feet upon the earth, yet they must be brought 
before the judgment throne. Neither shall wicked- 
ness deliver those that are given to it, for there is 
no discharge in that war. Some say that our judg- 
ment is here, and our hell is here too, all that we 
will ever have; but all such fallacious ideas, with- 
out a change, will find out as to the truth of their 
statement only too late. How awful such an 
experience. 


Strong Delusions 


259 


CHAPTER XXI. 

Prayer. 

I will refer to the devotional part of onr lives to 
God, for the purpose of showing how we obtain 
most of our strength, and I never have found any 
word, in approaching the great throne of God, that 
is so effective in getting a direct answer, than to 
beg for mercy. It seems that God’s great heart, 
when we call for mercy, through our great High 
Priest, Jesus Christ, that our Father cannot turn 
a deaf ear. In all of my distresses, and the dis- 
tresses of my family, which have been very much, 
the first cry to my God has been mercy, have mercy, 
Oh Lord, have mercy. Right at this time, as I am 
writing, the news was phoned to us that my wife’s 
sister is very sick with fever, and her two daugh- 
ters, and in the same house one of the family, the 
aged father, paralyzed, and helpless, and only the 
husband is left that can help, or take care of them, 
and I replied to my wife that they are in a bad 
state, and I could only exclaim, Oh Lord, have 
mercy. And I know that God will hear, because 
he has heard me so many times, and answered me, 
and given comfort and relief, and even joy to the 
utmost beyond expression. Now I wish to call my 
reader’s attention to the power in prayer. So 
Abraham prayed unto God : and God healed Abim- 
ilech and his wife, and his maid servants and they 
bare children. You will notice that he prayed to 
God the Creator, and he was answered, and the 
healing was performed, and doubtless joy pre- 
vailed, on the part of both Abimilech and Abra- 
ham. And it is said that Abraham believed God, 


260 


Strong Delusions 


and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. 
And Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and 
I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they 
obeyed Samuel and confessed, and said we have 
sinned against the Lord. Their enemies also came 
up against them, even the Philistines, and they 
were afraid and said unto Samuel, cease not to cry 
unto the Lord our God, for us, that he will save us 
out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel 
offered a sucking lamb for a burnt offering, 
wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the 
Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And the 
Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, but 
the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that 
day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them 
and they were smitten before Israel. And Samuel 
exclaimed, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. We 
can readily see the power in prayer here again, in 
this instance. God heard and answered in a great 
thunder of destruction on their enemies. And 
Samuel said, Though you have sinned in choos- 
ing you a king, God forbid that I should sin against 
the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will 
teach you the good and the right way. And pointed 
out to them, what great things the Lord hath done 
for you. And much of these great things were in 
answer to prayer. And in SamuePs promise, not 
to cease to pray for his people, we learn that it is 
a sin to cease praying for our people, though they 
persist in sin. And the Lord made known unto 
King Solomon by night that he had heard his 
prayer and have chosen this place to myself for an 
house of sacrifice. And mine eyes and mine heart 
shall be there perpetually. For I have sanctified 
this house, that my name may be there forever, 


Strong Delusions 


261 


and if my people which are called by my name 
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my 
face, and turn from their sins, and will heal their 
land of such curses as I may send upon it, for the 
transgressions of my people. In this instance you 
will notice that God does not only hear the prayer 
of the king, but adds also a great and complete 
promise on the grounds of repentance, seeking and 
turning away from sin and wickedness. 

And God has made, if we will look, from his 
standpoint of highness, wonderful acknowledg- 
ment in the case of this most intelligent prayer 
of King Solomon’s, at the dedication of his house. 
The effect of prayer is very obvious, in the life and 
command of King Darius, after he had searched 
the treasure of Babylon, and found a roll made by 
the command of Cyrus, permitting the children to 
build the house of God; stating the specifications, 
including strong foundations for the house, the 
height thereof three-score cubits, and the breadth 
three-score cubits, with three rows of stone and a 
row of new timber, and let the expenses be given 
out of the king’s house. Then commands that all 
the vessels that were brought from Jerusalem, of 
gold, and silver, and every kind, by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, be restored, back to his place at Jerusalem, 
and place them in the House of God, and wrote a 
letter to the governor, and all the Babylonian au- 
thorities, which are beyond the river that were in- 
terfering with the building of the temple; be ye 
far from thence. And let the house of God alone; 
let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the 
Jews build this house of God in his place, and fur- 
ther, take of the king’s goods even the tribute be- 
yond the river be given to these men, that they be 


262 


Strong Delusions 


not hindered. And also give them bullocks, and 
rams and lambs for burnt offerings of sweet sa- 
vors, unto the God of heaven, and wheat and salt, 
wine and oil, according to the appointment of the 
priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given 
them day by day without fail. Now comes the peo- 
ple of God. That they may offer sacrifices of sweet 
savors unto the God of heaven, and pray for the 
life of the king, and his sons. And then set a de- 
cree of judgment of hanging any man to death that 
changed his above command. We surely can see a 
wonderful influence, that the saving power of the 
prayers of the people of God had over King Da- 
rius. Though the wicked say what is the Almighty, 
that we should serve him? And what profit shall 
we have, if we pray unto him? Their counsel is 
very far from the Almighty God; they say, how 
can God see; but how oft is the candle of the 
wicked put out? And how oft cometh their de- 
struction upon them? God distributeth sorrow in 
his anger. They are as stubble before the wind, 
and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. Him 
and his children shall see his destruction, and they 
shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. So you 
see we had better pray and obey and serve our 
Creator, and Maker. David the king, found profit 
and pleasure, peace and joy, in praying unto the 
Lord. Oh my King, and my God, hearken unto 
the cry of my voice, for unto thee will I pray. Oh 
Lord, thou shalt hear my voice, in the morning, in 
the morning will I look up, and direct my prayer 
unto thee. In the evening and morning, and at 
noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear 
my voice. David does not only believe in praying 
to the Lord, but crying aloud unto him, and he 


Strong Delusions 


263 


says that he will hear, and bless. Pray for the 
peace of Jerusalem, and hearken to my words. Oh, 
that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, 
then had thy peace been as a river, and thy right- 
eousness as the waves of the sea. Thy seed also 
had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bow- 
els like the gravel thereof; his name should not 
have been cut off nor destroyed from before me. 
The above Scripture signifies that if God’s chosen 
people should have obeyed his voice, and prayed 
always, that the Lord would have established his 
kingdom here upon earth, through their righteous- 
ness, this being the sole object in his chosen peo- 
ple. Then his name, referring to Jesus, would not 
have been cut off nor destroyed from before me. 
For he was cut off out of the land of the living; 
for the transgression of my people was he striken. 
And after three-score and two weeks shall Messiah 
be cut off, but not for himself. These quotations 
show that it is his son’s name that should not have 
been cut off nor destroyed from before me. Then 
Jesus himself said unto them, Thus it is written, 
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise 
from the dead the third day. Now after the people 
of God would not obey, then the prediction was 
for him to come, and suffer and die, for to make the 
law good. For God said, Am I man, that I shall 
not bring my word to pass? This Scripture cer- 
tainly shows the power there would have been, in 
the continued service of God’s people in the past. 
And who can tell the strength or the amount of 
good that would be accomplished, if all this great 
people would lift their voices in one united faith, 
according to God’s word, to our Heavenly Father, 
through our great high priest, the Lord Jesus 


264 


Strong Delusions 


Christ. There is a time that there is no use to 
pray: And I will cast you out of my sight, as I 
have cast out all of your brethren. Pray not thou 
for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for 
them, neither make intercession to me, for I will 
not hear thee. For the people were following 
other gods, and sacrificng to them. In similar 
manner, as this people today, this whole nation is 
after money, and amusement. God charges Jere- 
miah in two other places not to pray or cry, for 
this people of his, for he said, I will not hear them, 
though they cry unto me, but I will consume them 
by the sword, and by the famine and the pestilence. 
How awful a condition are we in when we have 
sinned away our day of salvation. Let us cry for 
mercy, while mercy may be obtained. Then the 
awful consequences of disobedience even in this 
life, for not obeying the voice of the Lord. Zede- 
kiah’s sons were all slain before his eyes, and then 
his eyes were put out, and he was bound in chains, 
and led away, and died a prisoner at Babylon. 
And further, the remnant of Israel that were not 
taken captive, even all of them, from the least to 
the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the 
prophet. Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be 
accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord 
thy God, even for all this remnant, for we are left, 
but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us. So 
Jeremiah prayed for them and returned them an 
answer, after they had called the Lord as witness, 
that they would obey what the Lord’s word might 
be, good or bad, but when he returned the answer 
unto them from God at their request. Then spake 
Azariah, and all the leaders, and all the proud 
men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely; 


Strong Delusions 


265 


the Lord God has not sent thee unto us with this 
word: That we go not down to dwell in Egypt. 
But they gathered themselves together, and went 
to Egypt, contrary to the command of God, and 
refused to keep their own vow. So they were de- 
stroyed by famine, and the sword, and by pesti- 
lence, till they were all consumed, and fell in the 
land of Egypt. They died, from the least even 
unto the greatest, and they became an execration, 
an astonishment, a curse and a reproach. But a 
small remnant only escaped. Should they not have 
heard the words, and prayers of the former proph- 
ets, while Jerusalem was inhabited, and in pros- 
perity, and all the cities thereof and round about 
her when they had the opportunity? And we had 
better seize this opportunity for ourselves; surely 
we would. 

Now we come to the New Testament, after giv- 
ing a brief sketch of the consequences of prayer 
under the teachings of the Old Testament. We 
unite with what Jesus said to us in his sermon on 
the mount, But I say unto you, love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 
use you, that ye may be the children of your Father 
which is in heaven. For God says he is good to 
them, and that is all that he asks us to be. Our 
Saviour went away many times, and prayed; but 
he did not let us know what he prayed for, or the 
general trend of his words, only in the garden of 
Gethsemane, when his sorrows were so intent; but 
he gave us a pattern, or form, that we might profit 
thereby. And how grand and sublime the prayer! 
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have 
aught against any, that your Father also, which is 


266 


Strong Delusions 


in heaven, may forgive your trespasses, but if ye 
do not forgive, neither will your Father which is 
in heaven forgive your trespasses. Here we see 
that our sins are forgiven on the same conditions, 
that we forgive all, this being one of the hardest 
problems that could be enjoined upon us, to yield 
unto. If we will just consider, how hard it is for 
us to forgive fellow-man, of his trespasses, and him 
our equal, then we may have some little idea of 
how much superior Jesus was over us, when in 
the flesh, he being able to forgive all that was 
done to him by those that persecuted him, in ev- 
ery shameful way, that could be perpetrated by 
word, and action, themselves being his subjects, by 
creation, and by preservation, and also by redemp- 
tion. Man is so frail, and so carnal, that he can 
hardly put up with his own ways, much less bear 
with the ways of others. He is irritated by and 
angered with the very least provocation, by any- 
thing, yes by the things of his life, that is the most 
dear unto him. And he spake a parable unto them, 
to this end, that men ought always to pray, and 
not faint, saying: There was in a city a judge, 
which feared not God, neither regarded man; and 
there was a widow in that city, and she came unto 
him saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he 
would not for a while. This saying “for a while” 
signifies that she continued her supplication for re- 
lief by continual coming, and the judge, just like a 
man, said within himself, Though I fear not God, 
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth 
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming 
she worry me. And the Lord said: Hear what the 
unjust judge saith. Though it is no advantage to 
me, now or ever will be, yet not to be troubled by 


Strong Delusions 


267 


her, I will remove her adversary, though she be 
nothing to me. And now comparing God’s justice 
and goodness to this judge’s injustice, he says: 
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry 
day and night unto him, though he bear long with 
them? I tell you that he will avenge them speed- 
ily. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh 
shall he find faith on the earth? Here shows the 
superiority of Jesus over man while he was here 
in the flesh, he being very God could bear with the 
vile treatment of the wicked in persecuting his 
own elect, that cry unto him always, day and night. 
Yes, he saith, I will come quick, and will avenge 
them with my wrathful anger. And he asks the 
doubtful question, And shall he find faith on the 
earth? My friends, we had just as well believe, and 
had just as well be crying and praying now while 
we have the opportunity, for he says, I will pray 
the Father, and shall give you another comforter, 
that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit 
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know 
him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 
And in that day ye shall ask in my name, and I 
say not unto you that I will pray the Father for 
you; and he gives his reasons: For the Father 
himself loveth you, because ye have loved 
me, and have believed that I came out from God. 
The radical difference between the people of God’s 
kingdom and the people of the world is belief and 
unbelief. Believing in God leads unto righteous- 
ness, and every good work; disbelieving in God 
leads to crime, and every low and conceivable kind 
of wickedness. Jesus, when here in the flesh, just 
before his departure, prayed for those that be- 


268 


Strong Delusions 


lived on him, and all those that believed through 
their word. And he said, I pray for them, I pray 
not for the world, but for them which thou hast 
given me ; for they are thine, and all mine are thine, 
and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. He 
then prayed the Father, as he was leaving the world, 
and coming back to heaven, and said Holy Father, 
keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast 
given me, that they may be one, as we are. The 
keynote to this, one of his last prayers, was the 
union, and oneness of the Spirit, and belief of his 
disciples. He further said: That I love them, 
that love me, and they that seek me early shall find 
me. How much rejoicing we ought to have because 
Jesus saith I love them that love me. He said, 
Neither pray I for these alone, but for all those 
which believe on me, through thy word. He fur- 
ther says that they may all be one, even as we are 
one. I would like to emphasize the great impor- 
tance of prayer, and its power, referring to the 
case of Saul, of Tarsus, for, behold he prayeth: 
This message was delivered unto a man of God, by 
the name of Ananias, through the Holy Spirit of 
God, showing that prayer is such an important 
and powerful factor in man, that it moved God the 
Father to bear the great message from one man 
that prayeth to another, that he might minister 
unto his wants, and baptize him. When we read 
the story of the death of Stephen, the martyred 
disciple of Christ, and Paul, consenting thereto, 
and his face looking like the face of an angel, and 
his calling with a loud voice, and kneeling down, 
said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Then 
he fell asleep. We can understand more clearly 
the conviction of Paul. He kept thinking of the 


Strong Delusions 


269 


death of Stephen as he went down to Damascus to 
the synagogues, for to do to the believers that he 
found in the way, as he had done to Stephen, and 
he wondered how any man could die the dreadful 
death of being stoned until he died, and pray at 
the same time, that the sin of such a miserable 
crime should be forgiven those perpetrators, and 
the more he thought on it, the more he was con- 
vinced of the crime, and Stephen’s prayer was so 
powerful and convincing that Paul was over- 
whelmed in conviction and said I fell to the ground, 
and saw a light around me, and heard a voice, and 
he surely prayed. And with such power that it 
moved heaven and earth, and the change in the 
apostle’s life was so radical that the people hardly 
believed, even Ananias. But it was no more of a 
change than what ought to occur in my life and in 
your life. We fall short of the importance of hav- 
ing the presence of the spirit, that it shall like- 
wise help our infirmities, for we know not what we 
should pray for, as we ought, but the spirit itself 
maketh intercession for us, with groanings which 
cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the 
hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, be- 
cause he maketh intercession for the saints, ac- 
cording to the will of God. Then our prayers 
should be the leadings of the Holy Spirit, so that 
we will pray with the spirit and pray with under- 
standing also. Praying always with all prayers, 
and supplications in the spirit, and watching our- 
selves, that we err not from the truth in all perse- 
verance and supplication, for all who love God, and 
keep his Word. We are admonished often to pray 
without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for 
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us, 


270 


Strong Delusions 


and a sacrifice that is well pleasing to him, that 
we quench not the spirit, nor set God at naught, 
lest he destroy us without mercy. God desires 
that men pray always, and everywhere, without 
wrath, and without doubting, instant in season 
and out of season. If any among you be afflicted 
let him pray. Is any merry, let him sing psalms. 
Are any sick, among you? Let him call for the el- 
ders of the church and let them pray over him, 
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 
and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and 
raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they 
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to 
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be 
healed. For the effectual prayer of a righteous 
man availeth much, and if all the people of any lo- 
cality would pray, believing, that people would be 
astonished at the results. I knew a man once that 
prayed and worked one year, and at the end of 
the time, there was a protracted meeting, in the 
neighborhood, and owing to the joy of the same 
man, God poured out his spirit on the people, of 
the meeting and every sinner was converted in all 
the surrounding neighborhood, but two, and they 
would have been saved if the meeting had contin- 
ued, for they had promised to yield, and several 
children were converted after the meeting closed, 
in the immediate neighborhood. 

Now there is no exception to praying, only for 
the unpardonable sin, and we are commanded not 
to pray for that. Moreover these are becoming fre- 
quent, very much to the shame of an intelligent 
people. And as he prayed the fashion of his 
countenance was altered, and his raiment white 
and glistening. And behold, there talked at that 


Strong Delusions 


271 


place two men with him, which were Moses and 
Elias. 

Prayer also shall be made for him continually, 
and day by day shall he be praised. He shall re- 
deem their soul from deceit, and violence, and pre- 
cious shall their blood be in his sight. For my 
love they are my adversaries, but I give myself 
unto prayer. The prayer of the upright is the 
Lord’s delight, but the way of the wicked is an 
abomination to the Lord. Neither will he hear the 
prayer of bloody men. Even the stranger that 
keepeth my Sabbath from polluting it, even them 
will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them 
joyful in my house of prayer, for mine house shall 
be called an house of prayer, for all people. And 
all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, be- 
lieving, ye shall receive. Just on the other hand 
we see that God says, My house shall be called of 
all nations, the house of prayer, but ye have made 
it a den of thieves. Woe unto yoiu Scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows’ 
houses and for a pretense make long prayers. 
Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 
And they were filled with madness, and communed 
one with another what they might do to Jesus. And 
it came to pass in those days that he went out into 
a mountain to pray, and continued all night in 
prayer unto God. Under such circumstances as 
Jesus prays all night when there were plots of 
madness raging against him, what do you think 
we ought to do under similar conditions? Yes, we 
should all pray in one accord. See the power of 
prayer in the case of Peter when he was chained 
between two soldiers, and the doors were well 
guarded. Prayer was made without ceasing, by 


272 


Strong Delusions 


the church unto God, for him. And, behold, the 
angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light 
shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the 
side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. 
And his chains fell off from his hands. And the 
angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy 
sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, 
Oast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And 
he followed the angel through the doors of the 
prison into the street, and it came to pass, that the 
great iron gate that leads into the city was obe- 
dient to the angel, and opened of itself, and then 
the angel left him. And when Peter came to him- 
self he said, Of a surety the Lord hath sent his an- 
gel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of 
Herod, and from the expectation of the people of 
the Jews. Then he went to the house where the dis- 
ciples of Jesus were praying, and they could 
scarcely believe, but all were filled with gladness 
and joy, for the mighty deed through prayer. This 
duty that we owe to our Master in prayer for the 
atonement of our souls. See how faithful we ought 
to be, in offering up our supplications, for our 
soul’s salvation. And when the wrath of God 
waxed hot against his people to destroy them, 
which he brought up out of the land of Egypt, with 
power and with a mighty hand, Moses besought 
the Lord his God, and said, Turn from thy fierce 
wrath and repent of this evil against thy "people. 
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy serv- 
ants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and 
saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the 
stars of heaven, and all this land that I have 
spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they 
shall inherit it forever. And the Lord heard Moses, 


Strong Delusions 


273 


and repented of the evil, and destroyed them not. 
See the prevailing power, that the prayer of a good 
man has with his God. We surely ought to conse- 
crate ourselves through knowledge and prayer, and 
girdle ourselves with good works of righteousness, 
which gives abundance of peace. And again the 
Lord God heard Moses, and forgave the sins of his 
people when God sought to kill them, on account 
of the evil report of the spies, that spied out the 
promised land, when all the people murmured 
against God. And Moses said, I beseech thee, let 
the power of my Lord be great, according as thou 
hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long suffering, 
and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and trans- 
gressions, and by no means clearing the guilty, vis- 
iting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon the 
iniquity of this people, I pray thee, according to the 
greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast forgiven this 
people heretofore. And the Lord said I have par- 
doned according to thy word. Then the Lord said, 
As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with 
the glory of the Lord, signifying by this saying 
that if you will not obey me, I have a more excel- 
lent plan, to bring my word to pass. For it is not 
a vain thing for you, because it is your life, for 
through the Word of the Lord ye shall prolong 
your days among the living. And now in answer 
to the prayer of Joshua. And he spoke to the Lord 
in the sight of all Israel, Sun, stand thou still 
upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Aija- 
lon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed 
until the people had avenged themselves upon their 
enemies. So the sun stood in the midst of heaven, 
and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And 
18 


274 


Strong Delusions 


there was no day like that before it or after it, that 
the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man. One 
of the most wonderful things among wonders, is 
that the great God, in his greatness, will hearken 
unto a man, to do for him what he asks, even for 
all his creation to obey his command. How won- 
derful! And in this day some people dare to say 
that man has no power with God. One of the most 
touching exclamations that is set forth in the Bi- 
ble is that of Jephtlia’s on his return from the 
slaughter of the Ammonites, when his daughter, the 
only child of his, came forth to meet him with tim- 
brels and with dances. So he was made to rend 
his clothes and cry, Alas, my daughter, thou hast 
brought me very low, for I have opened my mouth 
unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. And his 
daughter would not have him rescind his pledge, 
but asked only three months to prepare herself for 
the ordeal. God answered Samson’s prayers, in 
destroying more of the Philistines, when he leaned 
himself upon the pillars that the temple rested 
upon, than he destroyed in all before, and also an- 
swered his prayer in taking his life also. God did 
this for Sampson to avenge himself for his two 
eyes that they plucked out. So you see the won- 
derful effect of prayer in this instance also. And 
Hannah prayed to God in the bitterness of her 
soul, and the Lord heard her petition, and filled 
her heart with gladness, and she was no more sad. 
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth 
in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord, my 
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I 
rejoice in thy salvation. The Lord is holy, he is 
our rock, and there is no one like him. Cease to 
exalt yourselves no more, for the Lord God know- 


Strong Delusions 


275 


eth, and he weigheth our actions; he breaks the 
bows of the mighty, and the weak are made 
strong; they that are full are made hirelings for 
bread, and the hungry cease. The barren are made 
to sing, and they that bear are made feeble. The 
Lord killeth and he maketh alive, he bringeth down 
to the grave, and he bringeth up again. The Lord 
maketh poor, and he maketh rich, he bringeth low 
and lifteth up. He lifteth the poor up out of the 
dust, and the beggar from the dunghill, to set them 
among princes, and to make them inherit the 
throne of glory. The earth is the Lord’s, and the 
fullness thereof. He will keep the feet of his saints, 
and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by 
strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of 
the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven 
shall he thunder upon them; the Lord shall judge 
the whole earth, and strengthen his King, and the 
horn of his anointed shall be exalted. And through 
faithful prayer God gives us wisdom, to do justice 
and judgment in righteousness. And when Elijah 
cried, from his heart, with a bitter and lamentable 
cry unto the Lord, for the weeping widow, in her 
bereavement for her only son, God heard his sup- 
plication and answered his prayer in restoring the 
child’s life, and he delivered him unto his mother 
alive. So you can see how man prevails with God, 
and he raises the dead to life again. Then on an- 
other day Elijah cried unto the Lord God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known that fin 
Israel that thou art God, and that I am thy serv- 
ant, and I have obeyed thy word. Hear me, O 
Lord, hear me, that this people may know that 
thou art the Lord God that the people’s hearts be 
turned back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, 


276 


Strong Delusions 


and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the dust, 
and licked up the water that was in the trench. 
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their 
faces, and said, The Lord he is God, the Lord he is 
God. How wonderful was the change caused by 
the prayer of one good man. Then he prayed for 
rain, and God sent a great rain in answer to his 
request, and just see how much people get just for 
the asking. Did you ever hear of the like? Then 
Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s 
spirit, and God gave it unto him and he performed 
wonders before the people in the name of the Lord. 
In answer to his word, God filled the ditches of the 
valleys full of water, and the Moabites were smitten 
before Judah, and the dead son of the Shunamites 
raised to life, healed the pottage, cured the leper, 
at his word, iron swam on water, the army of the 
Syrians blinded, and led into the city of Israel, and 
many more notable things occurred through the 
asking of Elisha. Now we could write a whole 
book on the things that God has done for good 
men in answer to prayer. Time would hardly per- 
mit to write them all. There are Job, David, Solo- 
mon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and all the 
prophets, and all the apostles, and the blessed Mas- 
ter, and many good men and women, since the days 
of grace, that have cried unto the living God, and 
have been heard, and answered, and delivered out 
of trouble and from death. And innumerable com- 
panies have gone home to glory to joy and praise 
God forever and ever, that have made their way 
through prayer and obedience, to God and his 
Christ. 


Strong Delusions 


277 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Faces Turned Away Back and Hazing. 

God in his great wisdom chose to himself a pe- 
culiar people, a man of faith and obedience, even 
Abraham, and he led him and set him apart for 
his service, to serve him, but as the sons of Abra- 
ham descended and multiplied, they wandered 
from the commands of God, and God sent great 
judgments upon them, and destroyed the fattest of 
them, but spared a few of the best, and most hum- 
ble. And in their distress they cried unto the 
Lord God with their voice, and God heard them, 
and in the day of their trouble they sought the 
Lord. They cried out, Will the Lord cast us off 
forever? And hath God forgotten to be gracious? 
Hath he in anger, because of our transgressions, 
shut up his tender mercies, to remember us no 
more forever? And then thy people acknowl- 
edge the great power of our God and said: The 
clouds poured out water, the skies sent out a sound, 
thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy 
thunder was in the heaven ; the lightning lightened 
the world; the earth trembled and shook. They 
further confess that thy way is in the sea, and thy 
path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not 
known. For God is a spirit, and the spirit is like 
the wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every- 
one that is born of the spirit. And again: As 
thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, 
nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that 
is with child, even so thou knowest not the works 


278 


Strong Delusions 


of God who maketh all. We need not trouble our- 
selves about such things, as is not revealed, and is 
kept hid from us, but get what is revealed, and be 
sure to do them, and then we will be all right. 
And God, even our God will bless us, and quicken 
us, and we will call upon his name, and say, Turn 
us, O Lord God of Hosts, cause thy face to shine; 
and we shall be saved. It is very evident that if 
God’s chosen people had obeyed God’s word, and 
done all his commandments, that he would have 
established his kingdom here upon earth ; and 
reigned here with his people; and him, and his 
Christ would have been the light thereof, instead 
it coming as it will come, as provided by the de- 
struction of all the wicked that will be on the 
earth. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, 
and Israel had walked in my ways ! I should soon 
have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand 
against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord 
should have submitted themselves unto him, but 
their time should have endured forever. These 
Scriptures express that the Lord God would have 
destroyed all that were wicked and disobedient, say 
all the heathen, and the good people’s time would 
have endured forever, or in other words, he, through 
their righteousness would have restored this world, 
back to its former glory and happiness, and says: 
He should have fed them also with the finest of the 
wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I 
have satisfied thee. Mark, he says I would have 
satisfied thee with honey out of the rock and fed 
them with the finest wheat. Then in another place 
he says: Thy lips, O my spouse, drop the honey- 
comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue, and 
the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Leb- 


Strong Delusions 


279 


anon. This, of course, is the same rock that he 
would have fed them with; if they would have 
obeyed. But being filled with unrighteousness, 
and being filled with envy, and murder, and haters 
of God, just like multitudes of people are living in 
perfect hatred to God, and his Christ, at this pres- 
ent day, and doing despite to his name. There- 
fore were their foolish hearts darkened, because 
they glorified not his name, in obeying his word, as 
is done today, worshiping the creature more than 
creation, for this cause God gave them up unto vile 
affections ; they doing that which is unseemly, 
making themselves as we do at this day a shame, 
by doing crime, and doing such things in secret 
that is not fit to know; speaking evil things that 
they know not; but what they know naturally, as 
brute beast, and in those things they corrupt them- 
selves. Woe unto them ! In departing from God’s 
word by transgression, they caused all of God’s 
adversaries not to be destroyed by his chosen peo- 
ple, and he came, and fulfilled the law ; and he will 
come in power and great glory, and destroy all his 
enemies with one mighty blast. And he will avenge 
himself, upon his adversaries, by inflicting satis- 
factory punishment on all offenders, according to 
each individual crime. And in his second coming, 
when he appears, and we behold his face, with his 
fiery indigination, with flashing eyes, all faces 
shall be afraid. And he will send forth his angels, 
and they will sever the wicked from the righteous, 
and will miserably destroy them. For to further 
show the divine sentiment in connection with the 
above, I will give God’s word. O that there were 
such an heart in them that they would fear me, and 
keep all my commandments always, that it might 


280 


Strong Delusions 


be well with them forever, and their children, and 
the Lord God requires nothing of thee but to fear 
the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways and to 
love him, and to serve him, and honor the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; to 
keep the commandments of the Lord, and his stat- 
utes, which I command thee this day for thy good. 
O that they were wise, that they understood this, 
that they would consider their latter end! Fur- 
ther, he says, That thou hadst hearkened to my 
commandments ! Then had thy peace been as a 
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the 
sea. Thy seed also had been as the sand and the 
offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof ; and 
his name should not have been cut off nor de- 
stroyed before me. Here is an expression plain, 
and emphatic, that his name would not have been 
cut off, nor destroyed, if God’s people would have 
obeyed his word, and commandment. And when 
Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem and the mul- 
titudes said unto him, Rebuke thy disciples be- 
cause they were praising and blessing his name, 
and when he was come near, he beheld the city, and 
wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even 
thou, at least in this thy day, the things which be- 
long unto thy peace! But now they are hid from 
thine eyes. This was God’s city, where he had put 
his name, and promised his people that if they 
would obey him, that his name should abide there 
forever. And just think of the Son of God weep- 
ing over that city, knowing by the disobedience of 
his people that he was to suffer the shameful death 
of the cross, and God’s house, and his people would 
be destroyed, for no other purpose, only sin. 
Doubtless this was another time that he was 


Strong Delusions 


281 


grieved at his heart. Then just think of the millions 
and billions of people that are forfeiting their day 
of salvation, at this day, in a more silly way than 
those people of the old Jerusalem, sinned away 
their day of grace, and many of these now-a-days 
are committing this crime in the face of the light. 
Take the case of the Chapel Hill hazing, if you 
please, by which the young Rand was murdered 
by hazers. Doubtless these young men were in 
full gleam of light. And one of these four perpe- 
trators was a young Mr. Styron, who is a ministe- 
rial student from Wilmington. Just think of such 
heathenish, brutish, unprincipled, degenerating 
practice of amusement, by enlightened people, at 
the expense of another person’s life, for such base 
and atrocious ends of self-gratitude. And one of 
these four men, studying to be a minister of the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, surely a great 
minister, murdering his brother, a much better 
man than himself. This brutal and atrocious prac- 
tice of hazing, taking by force a man from hisi 
room at the hour of midnight, and from his room 
of rest, and protection, by four masked men, and 
by force of power, marched in their nightclothes 
to death. What pain, what distress to parents, to 
brothers, to any community, and to the shame of the 
University. Then think of the shame of these four 
young men, and what they have received. How do 
they feel answering the charge of this brutal mur- 
der, and the ghastly aspect of a man’s blood facing 
them, for to behold, in every way they may turn 
for all life. Young men, boys, you had better quit 
hazing, there has been enough of hazing done. In- 
asmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then 


282 


Strong Delusions 


shall he say also unto them on the left hand, de- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the Devil and his angels, for I was an 
hungered and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty 
and ye gave me no drink, I was a stranger and yet 
took me not in, naked, and ye clothed me not, sick 
and in prison and ye visited me not. Then shall 
they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we 
thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister 
unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, 
Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not 
unto one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 
And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment, but the righteous into life eternal. Here 
you see by this decision that these hazers are in a 
bad state. And again God says : And surely your 
blood of your lives will I require ; at the hand will 
I require it, of every beast, and at the hand of 
man, at the hand of every man’s brother will I re- 
quire the life of man. Who so sheddeth man’s 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the 
image of God made he him. If these four young 
men get to heaven, they will have to make resitu- 
tion ; for God says that : If the wicked restore the 
pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the 
statutes of life, without iniquity; he shall surely 
live, he shall not die. None of his sins shall be 
mentioned unto him, that had been committed. 
After he has complied with the above provisions, 
so you see that these are in for life. Life for a 
life. Where this practice of hazing commenced, I 
am not posted, but the first hazing I call to mind 
was that of the Son of the living God, when Pilate, 
the governor, after he had scourged him, he deliv- 


Strong Delusions 


283 


ered him into the hands of a band of soldiers, and 
they took Jesus into the common hall, and gath- 
ered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they 
stripped him, and put on Jesus a scarlet robe. This 
far is a little different to these enlightened perpe- 
trators, for they took their victim by force, com- 
pelling him or them without being dressed. I have 
contended for a long time that if you want the 
meanest, and the lowest and the blackest crime 
committed that can be done, take a man that has 
been to the light, and when he stoops to meanness, 
he surely can accomplish the most atrocious of 
all crimes. Then these soldiers, for sport, put a 
crown of thorns upon his head, and a reed in his 
right hand, doubtless guying him sportingly, in a 
blood red robe, and the thorny crown upon his 
head, slanderingly calling him a king, and in the 
vilest of mockery, bowed the knee before him, say- 
ing, Hail, King of the Jews! We see these sol- 
diers, all encircled around him, with bowed, wor- 
shipful attitude, and laughingly calling to him, 
Save us now, if you can, thorny head, we have got 
you now. Then they arose, and one after another 
walked up to him, and spit in his face, and laughed 
with the gayety of contempt, at the filthy, be- 
smeared face of the blessed Jesus, done by their 
dirty, low-bred, fiendish intolerance. I wonder 
how the Son of God, from a human standpoint, 
could endure such treatment? None but a divine 
God could. People say that it is a dirty, low-down 
trick, to spit upon the carpet or floor. Then they 
smote him with the palms of their hands, one af- 
ter another, with cruelty, and with the same con- 
temptible idea of hazing. Well, every time you 
haze a Freshman, big boys, you are hazing Jesus. 


284 


Strong Delusions 


You have no way of getting out of it, only not to 
do it. And they took the reed from him, and smote 
him on the head, and perhaps asked him how does 
that feel. As they had satisfied their pernicious 
desires in mockery, they took the robe off from 
him, and led him away to crucify him. They gave 
him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when 
he had tasted there, he would not drink. Now 
these suggestions mentioned of these soldiers ap- 
pear about like these four young men would say 
and act, and are so inhuman, when they engage in 
such low down and hideous crime. Diving Jesus 
gall to drink, and all kinds of mockery, for wor- 
ship. And this is what these enlightened people 
of today are doing, just what those soldiers did to 
Jesus, when they crucified him. These young men 
doubtless had no idea of killing Mr. Rand, but 
nevertheless he was killed all the same, and alas, 
alas, how lamentable! These all were young men 
and of good families. For the sport that they found 
in driving and harrassing we see what is to pay, 
the penalty. Oh, they played the abusive trick 
upon their brother schoolmate. They ought to 
have been showing him all sorts of kindness, and 
now they would have been feeling so different. I 
want to refer to the future as our eternal exist- 
ence. So many people, both old and young, but 
more especially the grown-up young, are just float- 
ing along on a raft of fun, and sporty stuff. How 
is the end going to be — who can tell? We are 
much surprised, yea astonished many times when 
we look around and take a synopsis view of the 
human family, and see all the diversifications in 
the different families, in different sections and dif- 
ferent countries, and nations, yes, in my own little 


Strong Delusions 


285 


family, presents this difference, though there is 
or may be a slight resemblance, yet there are no 
two boys or two girls, anyway near alike; they are 
very different, in thought and action, different in 
the idea of what to be, different in gift, different 
in capacity, different in general features, different 
in the length of their lives, in fact and principle, 
they are all different, and it has been said that 
you can not find two people alike, no, not even 
twins, are alike. Now what makes this difference? 
Who can tell, or is it wise to ask such a question? 
After studying this question from every reason- 
able point of view, the most feasible answer that 
can be rendered must be sin. Transgression has 
marked, and mangled and carved every imaginable 
indent upon man, and in his life that can be thought 
of, and many more. Especially so, when we turn 
to view the side of his character. Now when we 
look at man, when going away from God; his Cre- 
ator, and Maker, the only friend and protector 
that he has. Just turn our eyes toward our pa- 
rents, Adam and Eve when they sinned, and God 
came into the garden, and judged them and drove 
them out. Just see them going away from God, 
under a condemned pronunciation of guilt, and 
shame, to receive the punishment imposed by a 
just God ; and one that has the power to judge and 
must be avenged, and justified, in rejecting, and 
punishing sin, and iniquity by death and destruc- 
tion. Literally, and without reform of obedience 
eternally. This falling away and transgressing 
against God caused all creation to be changed and 
turned around, for you see the backs of our fore- 
parents turned to God, and going away from him, 
and people have been going from God ever since, 


286 


Strong Delusions 


and all the persuasive influence and power that 
can be set forth by the great God, and through man 
seems but naught, to turn them, and to cause our 
faces to turn thitherward ; to show the truth of this 
statement. We refer to the great destruction of the 
earth, by the flood turned in on it; when God de- 
stroyed every living thing from off the earth, and 
just saved Noah, and his family that did not turn 
their faces backward, but walked with God, and 
then all the plagues and punishment that God sent 
upon Pharaoh, and even death, and all that did 
not turn them this way. Now as we leave Pha- 
raoh, and all the heathens, and come down the line 
of God’s chosen people, the most severe judgments 
and all the most persuasive promises, that God 
could present to his people, did not cause them to 
turn their faces thitherward. Even the fiery de- 
struction of Nadab and Abihu did not turn them 
this way; no, nor did the destruction of Korah, 
Dathan and Abiram. When the Lord God 
caused a new thing, and the earth opened her 
mouth, and swallowed them up, with all that 
appertain unto them, and they go down quick 
into the pit; then shall ye understand that these 
men have provoked the Lord. And as Moses 
the servant of God had made an end of speaking 
that the earth opened her mouth wide, and clave 
asunder under them, and swallowed them up, 
their houses and all their possessions. They and 
all that appertained to them went down alive into 
the pit, and they perished from among the con- 
gregation. And their cry went up as they went 
down, and all Israel fled at their cry, for they said, 
Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came 
out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two 


Strong Delusions 


287 


hundred and fifty men that offered incense. So 
you see these men were destroyed by the cleaving of 
the earth and by a consuming fire, because they 
turned their backs to God, in going away from 
him; and the judgment of God's wrath in this case 
did not cause the people to walk this way, but still 
continued to walk that way. And see the destruc- 
tion of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
this terrible judgment that was sent upon these 
cities to destroy them with fire, and brimstone; 
the flaming flames consuming them, wiping them 
off the face of the earth. This did not cause the 
people to turn back to walk thitherward, though 
the smoke of that country went up as the smoke 
of a great furnace. In this terrible destruction of 
these cities, and all the other judgments that God 
has conferred upon the wicked for their wicked- 
ness, and showing his power in his wrath, in 
avenging himself upon them. He has ever shown 
his great, loving heart in pity to those that turned 
their faces thitherward, in following him in obe- 
dience. See how much care, and patience he bore 
with the wicked in building the ark, giving Noah 
one hundred years for to build it. And again, be- 
fore he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, he or the angels took Lot and his wife, and 
his daughters by the hand and led them out of the 
city, tenderly, and saved their lives, always saving 
the just. Just see the judgments that God thun- 
dered down upon the heathen, by war, and hail, 
and fire, and destroying millions and millions, and 
yet men persist in going away back. And just 
turn to God's chosen people, after he has per- 
formed wonderful, ah, wonders, in delivering and 
saving them many times, out of their troubles, and 


288 


Strong Delusions 


distresses, and yet they turned away back, and 
then he sent his wrathful anger down in destroying 
and scattering them into all nations of the 
heathen, that they might become a taunt and a 
hissing before the heathens, and God said that the 
heathens would be astonished at them, and they 
would be a reproach, and execration and a curse, 
and they were beseiged until they ate their own flesh, 
and the flesh of their children, and for all that 
they yet walked away back. And finally God gave 
his only begotten Son, and he came and led a sin- 
less life of redemption, and taught the people all 
righteousness, and showed forth his glory in doing 
many miracles, by turning water into wine, feed- 
ing the multitudes with five loaves and two small 
fishes, and stilled the tempestuous sea, making it 
be still ; open the eyes of the blind, healing the sick, 
curing the leper, making the lame to walk, un- 
stopping the ears of the deaf, raising the dead to 
life, again, and preaching the gospel to the poor. 
Doing all these things to show the Father’s great 
loving heart for his creatures. Yet they turned 
away back, and laid hands on the blessed Son of 
God, and crucified and killed our Maker, and Sa- 
viour, with most shameful of shamefulness; noth- 
ing could have been worse. And God’s word 
teaches us that because we have done this, that he 
will pour out his vengeance and fury out on us in 
his wrathful anger by casting us into a lake of fire, 
and brimstone that shall not be quenched, where 
their worm dieth not and the fire shall never be 
quenched. And for all this we keep turned away 
back, and will not turn our faces thitherward. 
Now what is to be done? Surely, if the people 
know how they stand before God they would halt. 


Strong Delusions 


289 


People are forcing their way on in darkness, just 
as fast as the wheels of time can roll, at most fear- 
ful speed, all joined together, in great bands, and 
tumultuous throngs, only to plunge into the aw- 
ful destruction of eternal fire and brimstone, 
where there will be wailing, weeping and gnashing 
of teeth. If you want to know how bad that pun- 
ishment will be, just put your hand in a burning 
fire, a little while, and you will have a little fore- 
taste ; then think of the whole body being cast into 
hell fire, and brimestone, that never shall be 
quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire 
is not quenched. God says the proud in heart is 
an abomination unto the Lord, though hand join 
in hand, they shall not go unpunished. There is 
no hazing, nor any compulsory conditions, about 
this travel, of short stay here in this life; as to 
what we do in this warfare; we simply choose for 
ourselves, right or wrong, and take for ourselves 
the judgment of the bitter, fierce, fiery punishment 
of the flaming flames of hell, to abide in eternally. 
Or choose right, for ourselves, the judgment of 
come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
of heaven prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world. Come unto me, all ye that labor, and 
are heavy laden and I will give you rest; for my 
yoke is easy and my burden is light. I stand all 
the day long, with my arm still strenched out. And 
the spirit and the bride say come, and let him that 
heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come, 
and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the 
water of life freely. These words of tender- 
ness and love; words of the most persuasiveness; 
words of the most gentleness ; words of the 
most graciousness ; fell from the mouth of 
19 


290 


Strong Delusions 


Jesus; with the softest and most pathetic lov- 
ing tones that were ever uttered by any man 
upon the earth. With all the force of his gracious 
expression, he says, come, for I go away to pre- 
pare a place for you, that where I am there ye 
may be also, and if it were not so I would have told 
you. Now we are so highly favored by our Father 
and God; for he saves us through his Son Jesus 
Christ; that we are more deeply responsible. So 
let us freely accept this great invitation and live, 
so that we can joy in the courts of the New Jeru- 
lem for the space of one thousand years, and then 
hear the welcome applause, come ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit eternal life. With all that life 
means, which in words cannot be expressed. I 
want to relate a little circumstance that took 
place with the writer a short while ago. I made a 
little visit to the small town of Asheboro, and, ar- 
riving in the city after night, I seemed to be com- 
pletely turned around, though I went to my room. 
In the morning the sun rose in the west, the south 
was in the north, and I was perfectly lost in a 
little town that I was well acquainted with ; I had 
to inquire at several places to find myself. Now, 
I use this circumstance to show the inconvenience 
of the situation, and the disagreeableness of being 
lost in a place that one is so familiar with. The 
whole trouble being in myself, it was myself that 
was turned around. Now, when I got right I 
found that all material things were all right. This 
being turned around, illustrates the human family 
very much, everything being wrong. I went the 
wrong course in every instance. Just like people. 
Adam falling into sin reversed himself, and ever 


Strong Delusions 


291 


since everything seems wrong that is right until we 
are set right with our Maker. 

The man was turned around and faced the wrong 
way by sin, and has been going the wrong way ever 
since. And see how many times he has fallen head- 
long into destruction. Destroyed by water, de- 
stroyed by the millions in war, and millions and 
billions by pestilence, and by famine ; and the world 
ever tells the distress caused by sin and disobedi- 
ence. All people are traveling, and groping in ob- 
scure darkness but the very few that inquire of the 
Son of God and get right through him by being 
washed in his blood. Though we all seem so well 
acquainted with the world and the things of this 
world, yet we are lost, and miserably lost, but seem 
not to realize that fact; pressing right ahead and 
falling over the great precipice headlong into ever- 
lasting destruction. What great upheavals and 
surges, and rushing, boastings, and such mighty 
efforts being made, who can, and who can get there 
first, to such sorrow, such pain, such death ! I wish 
I could show eternal hell fire and brimstone with 
such horrifying tones that it would arrest the mind 
of every living man, woman and child, that they 
could see what an awful death that there is in death 
eternal. 

Then, when we consider the general trend of 
thought expressed by the people, whether inten- 
tionally or not, it is to accuse the Almighty God, 
our Maker, our preserver, the only source of all 
supplies of our lives, in food, in raiment, in health, 
or in any condition of life whatever, of being the 
destroyer of all our enterprises. For instance, we 
will take the farmer when he speaks in reference to 
his crop; he says that if it had not been for the 


292 


Strong Delusions 


drouth he would have made so much com, or but 
for the freeze, or chinch bug, or rust, he would have 
made so many bushels of wheat or of potatoes — if 
the pest had not destroyed them, signifying that 
the Almighty sends all these judgments for to de- 
stroy and deprive us of what we should have, not 
considering that if the Almighty God had with- 
drawn himself we would not have obtained one 
thing by our efforts. But our being depends en- 
tirely upon the wonderful patience of God’s merci- 
ful kindness and his long suffering with the wicked ; 
in saving the righteous, as in the building of the 
Ark, wherein only eight souls were saved. Now this 
is a very sore evil, and I wonder sometimes why the 
Great Preserver of all things does not, with one 
mighty breath, or word, sweep away every living 
creature for the impudence of the general public; 
for the want of prudence, or discretion, or for want 
of caution and circumspection, or for not looking 
at things in a logical way ; not having due respect, 
or any regard for the consequence of words to be 
uttered, or actions to be performed, and their prob- 
able effect on the interest, safety, reputation or 
happiness of one’s self by actions, or heedless of the 
reproach and contempt or derision cast upon the 
name of the merciful God by the insolent, rude and 
sarcastic language uttered by such a wicked and 
haughty generation. O that we, as people of light, 
would hearken unto the truth in his Word, and our 
peace would be as a river, and our righteousness as 
the waves of the sea. Then our children would 
have been lamblike, and the offspring of our bowels 
would have multiplied abundantly, and His name 
would be glorified and honored above all other 


Strong Delusions 


293 


names. Now let ns turn to the Bible and see if we 
can learn. 

And there followed him a great company of peo- 
ple, and of women which also bewailed and la- 
mented him. But Jesus, turning unto them said, 
Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, 
the days are coming in the which they shall say, 
Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never 
bare, and the paps which never gave suck. These 
verses signify that the destruction of the world is 
nigh at hand. For then they shall begin to say to 
the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, 
Cover us. For if they do thus to Jesus, the Re- 
deemer, what shall be done to a disobedient and 
an adulterous generation of vipers and hypocrites? 
Human language cannot convey the awful destruc- 
tion that is waiting for us. 














* 

















a 



















































































Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 




